Halo: Of Wolves And Wagtails
by dmandog056
Summary: Six had lost so much, his family, his purpose, his team. Follow Noble's lone wolf assassin along a new path as he strives to survive his new fate as a cerberus among the sekirei. Will the former ONI SPARTAN-III prevent Minaka's age of the gods or spur it along? "Gods must be strong." (This is a Sekirei story, Harem is implied.)
1. Fall of Reach

Halo: Of Wolves And Wagtails

Episode 1: Fall of Reach

-EPSILON ERDIANI SYSTEM: REACH: ASZOD: UNSC SHIPWERCKING YARDS: AUGUST 30TH 2552-

The once majestic skies of the fallen human stronghold were now glowing red with a wrathful hue. Burning, if one other word could describe the horrific situation, that would be it. Where only a short time ago there were abundant fields, craggy mountain ranges, verdant forests, and several sprawling major cities, only glass remained. The world's once vast seas were now boiling away with the same zealous hatred as the land. with A beam of light pierced the planet's atmosphere, its raw power burned away the remains of a frontier town below it. Yet even as the world was being reduced to a lifeless orb of glass, there was a strange beauty to the planet's demise. It was almost as if the world itself was taking a final breath and reflecting its sorrow into the skies.

On the ground though, a furious battle raged. The sounds of explosions, gunfire, and plasma wailing echoed for miles around as teeming hordes of alien monsters ran into the fight. Some cries of rage and fury were silenced as soon as they were uttered, the throats of their speakers having been shot or sliced open. The lesser creatures that survived began to flee in terror at the slaughter that was taking place. The mightier beings zealously rushed forward, towards the epicenter of the ungodly massacre, hellbent on purging the tainted world of the demon's heresy. Beside them were hulking beasts covered in armor whose bodies wriggled and constricted while their metal boots stomped with a rhythmic boom. Hunters and Elites, some of the most dangerous forces within the covenant and they were rushing to exterminate the last shred of resistance in the area.

As the zealots and their hunters arrived in force, they were immediately met with a hail of high caliber automatic gunfire. The vengeance fueled storm of fire killed several of their numbers, even those who attempted to out flank the position being swept away. In response to the barrage of deadly ammunition, a grunt that was braver than most hefted a fuel rod cannon over its shoulder and launched a green bolt of destruction towards the building. With a loud bang the bolt hit its mark, blowing a hole in the side of the crumbling structure. Following this was a barrage of similar bolts erupting from powerful cannons mounted on the arms of the hunters. Every single shot rained down upon their target in an effort to eradicate the being inside that simply refused to perish. After a long moment of thunderous explosions, with the wave of a three fingered hand from an ornately armored being, the hunters ceased their barrage.

When the dust settled only silence persisted across the entirety of the gore covered battlefield. Corpses of different races of creatures were strewn over the area, displaying the cost of the battle. The leader of the strike force looked to his fellow zealots and spoke to them in an alien language. He pointed his hand at the ruined building and the holy warriors cautiously approached it, intent on confirming the end of the demon within. As the group of zealots entered the abused building, they only saw shadows and heard the sound of rocks crumbling. The commanding Zealot turned his head sharply in the direction of a clinking noise. The warriors immediately activated their divine blades and scanned the room methodically, searching for their quarry. Suddenly a minor beeping sound began to echo in the room with a red light flickering brightly. Suddenly several other lights joined it and the building's interior adopted a color similar to that of the skies outside. The zealots roared in fury as they attempted to escape the trap left for them by the demon. But as they ran out of the building a shimmering figure rose from the one dark corner of the room catching the last zealot off guard and silently extinguished its life.

The glowing blade fell from its former owner's hand and clattered to the stone floor, the shimmering figure was quick to snatch it up. The other Zealots were angered at the trick and ran back inside to put down the vengeful being that defended the ruin. The lights shut off and the room went dark, leaving the zealots with only the light of their blades to shine their way through the darkness. Unbeknownst to them, their prey had put himself behind their position with careful steps to avoid alerting the eager group of predators. With a quick move the being stood up and its illusion of invisibility faded away. The being then drew its new blade, moving at a rapid pace the being slashed through a zealot's back, spattering blue blood over its armor. Within a split second the other warriors rushed at their target who had been foolish to reveal itself. The squad leader howled a command and its fellow zealots slashed at the being who only sidestepped their strikes one after the other.

With a crack of its neck the armored figure in the shadows began its own wrathful retaliation. It slashed through a zealot's arm, cleaving it off with a sickening squelch. Another Zealot charged to end the demon they had hunted so tirelessly; its efforts were in vain as the demon countered it and rammed the energy blade through the zealot's head. A third zealot grabbed a second sword from one of the fallen warriors and slashed viciously at the defiant being. A flurry of blurred slashes was all for naught, causing the zealot to roar in aggravation. What it received in return was an expertly parried strike and sidestep that ended with a flawless stab through the side. The zealot collapsed to the ground, bleeding profusely from its soon to be fatal wounds, the being howled in pain as it laid on the ground. The silver visor of the vengeful demon loomed over it, showing no emotions, only a reflection. With another quick jab the energy blade pierced the neck and torso of the creature, ending its struggle. Only the squad leader remained now, it watched as the figure stood up from the crouch it had taken when it ended the life of the zealot.

In a flash of red light, the proud leader of the zealot kill squad activated its red energy sword, positioning itself to kill the demon. The demon mimicked its movements and signaled for the leader to attack. With a loud roar the Zealot squad leader boke into an almost imperceptible burst of speed and leapt at its opponent. The armored figure rolled under the attack evading the leader's assault and skidded to a halt, cracking the concrete its boots stopped on. With a blurred dash the armored being darted forward and clashed blades with the zealot squad leader. Both of them pushed back and forth with the demon quickly kneeing the alien in its stomach and causing the zealot leader's shield to glow an orange shade.

The Zealot leader retaliated by punching the armored being's helmet in an attempt to force it back. With a grunt from the stubbornly silent figure it forced it's helmet forward for a punishing headbutt that broke the zealot squad leader's shield and knocked it to the ground. The figure then pounced on its opponent and began repeatedly slamming its fists into the face of the zealot. For several moments the zealot howls in pain from being beaten to death by the very thing it had been dispatched to kill. When the cries of agony had stopped the figure raised one of its hands and briefly stared at the azure blood coating its hand. Bringing itself back to reality, the figure dropped its old energy sword, trading it for the red sword of the zealot it had brutally eliminated. With a moment of reprieve, the armored being raised the blade and was bathed in the crimson glow. Slowly it turned its attention outside and steeled itself for what would be its final act of defiance.

In the span of seconds, the being grabbed its other weapons, methodically holstering them in their respective places. Upon the being's back rested a what appeared to be a shotgun, at its right hip was the inactive energy sword, on the left was magnum pistol, and its hands held a battered assault rifle. It briefly crouched down and picked up a detonator from the floor, flipping a switch and then vanishing from sight. The creatures outside waited a short time longer before their commander ordered them to advance and crush the ruins. With that done, the horde advanced towards their holy goal something they would be revered for. But as they moved ahead, surrounding the crumbing ruin and blasting it to a pile of rocks, a group of red lights appeared under the armored beasts. A fraction of a second later the ground under them erupts into a blaze of fire, engulfing them and splattering gore everywhere. A large blur then dashes across the battlefield inflict heavy casualties on the horde of once seemingly unstoppable foes.

Into the light stepped the armored being, one of the fierce warriors the Covenant knew only as demons, a spartan-III super soldier, S-B312, Noble-6. This spartan wore a black suit of ODST configured armor with white stripes, the helmet being the standard variant with a black visor. With a burst of rifle fire, the spartan mows down a group of small creatures, drilling holes clean through them. A brute chieftain roars with a gravity hammer in its hand and attempts to crush the lone spartan with a gravity hammer but receives a shotgun blast in response. The armored figure ducks under a mighty swing of the brute's weapon and swiftly circles behind it. With a cock of the shotgun another round is chambered and then fired at the ape, blasting an almost fatal hole in its back. The Ape like alien roars, and using its hulking muscle, it once again tries to kill the spartan with every ounce of might it could spare. A final discharge from the powerful shotgun knocks the ape to the ground, dead. A group of elite Zealots swarm the armored being in an attempt to kill it and fulfill their mission. The spartan leaps away from a storm of heated plasma and swaps to his rifle, peppering the murderous aliens with more bullets immediately afterwards.

After several minutes of continuous exchanges of plasma and gunfire, with several of the attackers dead, the armored being stops for a moment. The battlefield had been rendered silent again, the only sounds being prevalent were those of the planet's death echoing around the figure. Suddenly the being swings its rifle around and fires at an opponent that rushes at it from out of nowhere, energy sword in its hand. The armored figure empties the magazine into its foe, killing it, only for several more of them to appear with various other weapons once again. Rage burning inside the being erupts as it battles with the new group of hostile forces, determined to survive. As one enemy attempted to rush the being it is knocked back by a mighty blast from the shotgun and finished by the rifle fire. A bolt then strikes the Spartan's helmet, cracking the visor, and forcing him ditch it temporarily. Once the helmet hits the ground, the elites attempt to overpower their prey through sheer numbers. The spartan fired his rifle at an elite as it rushed towards him, killing it. A zealot snuck up behind him and attempted to stab him from behind 6 dodged the attack and emptied the magazine into the elite's torso. When that enemy dropped dead, another elite fired its plasma repeater, overloading the spartan's shield. 6 was then tackled to the ground but managed to force the elite off of him. More elites ran in and tried to kill him, but it wasn't enough as he rolled to the side avoiding being stabbed by the fanatical aliens. 6 rose to his feet once more and drew his combat knife, sangheili blood still staining it. The spartan charged the elites, sidestepping slash after slash with each movement he made. He then grabbed a solid rock from the ground and smash it on the head of an elite, disabling the energy shield, following with a brutal stab through its throat.

The other elites continued to slash at the demon they hated so feverishly but this demon refused to accept its fate. 6 managed to draw the sword he'd taken and leapt backwards, narrowly avoiding being skewered like his teammate Emile. He held the blade in a challenging manner and the elites seemed to understand his gesture, one of them even stepped forward, accepting the challenge. In a blur of speed, the two of them clashed energy swords, this was no longer just the hunting of a demon, this was a matter of honor, Spartan vs Elite, human versus sangheili. The spartan was a bit surprised that he was actually being pushed back in hand to hand by the experienced larger alien. But 6 wasn't really putting his maximum effort into the struggle, and he wanted to enjoy this, so he quickly backed off and ducked under a swing from the blade. If the fight itself was something to go by, this elite had been in more than several battles with a spartan before though if it had, they were probably only shootouts. 6 then rushed the elite and the two traded blade slashes with one another for a brief moment. The elite blocked a mighty strike from the spartan and attempted to force the mighty warrior defense to break. Said Spartan though, simply forced his way forward, defeat being the last thing on his mind.

The other elites watched the battle with silent reverence as the fearless demon battled their comrade in an honorable duel. Most of the demons that battled their brothers rarely ever engaged in a duel, and elites rarely ever offered the challenge. As the two warriors battled, the planet itself seemed to assist in the battle, providing the perfect ambience to the battle. A crack of thunder echoed in the skies as 6 barely blocked a strike from the highly skilled elite. Though if 6 was being honest, he could have ended the fight much sooner, he wanted this to last. The spartan grunted as he leapt forward to counter his opponent's attack and sliced through the elite's torso, a mighty guttural roar escaped the elite's throat before it dropped down and died. The other Elites drew their swords in response, only for another of their kind to speak to them, passing an order to stay their blades. The decorated elite stepped forward and looked the spartan directly in his visor. 6 watched as the elite commander put a three fingered fist on its chest, a sign of honor. Such an action confused 6, but he when to trust his instincts so he stood down, lowering the sword but not deactivating it. He knew that as long as he'd survived against the swarm of elites, eventually even the strongest wolves can be beaten by an entire pack of other animals. The elite took note of that, but the demon had fought honorably, so the demon had the right to die on its terms. One tense moment later the elite signaled for his brothers to leave, the other elites nodded and started to walk away. The elite commander turned to the spartan, said something in its language, and walked away. On that note, 6 turned off the red sword and sighed bitterly, he had time to think at least.

The spartan walked over to the bodies of some of his fallen brothers and sisters that were scattered about the ruined shipwrecking yard. As bloodthirsty as he'd been to avenge them, his team was gone, the only one hopefully still alive with a way of being rescued was Jun who'd gone to castle base. Even then, 6 knew Jun had no way of getting to him in time if he did somehow realize that his comrade still lived. The spartan looked to his old helmet on the ground, the broken piece of equipment being useless now, just like him. With that on his mind, 6 sat down beside his fellow spartans, keeping a vigil over them like it still served a purpose. He didn't know them but they deserved better, he attempted to take solace in the fact that they held their ground and fought until the end. Now here he was, a member of a dying breed left without a purpose. All he could do now was wait to die, and he didn't have long to wait until he was burned to glass. It was empty, the fact that he'd done his duty and survived and also been left alone on a dying planet with nothing more than his weapons and corpses of fallen spartans to guard. The burning anger had disappeared since he'd worked it off fighting the elites, all that remained now was a simple objective, guard the dead. It was ironic considering he had been an ONI spook's personal grim reaper for so long. The spartan walked for a moment and retrieved his helmet, slapping it back despite the fracture of the faceplate. To his surprise, a signal actually got through across the comm network.

"*STATIC* 6?" A simulated voice struggled to speak.

"Dot?" The spartan said with a glimmer of hope.

"Noble 6?" The AI responded.

"Dot, I copy. Report your functionality." The Spartans ordered.

"Network connection is at critical status; satellite uplinks are failing with covenant targeting of remaining active communications arrays. Estimated time until planetwide communications are lost is unavailable."

"Can you get a fix on Jun?"

"Noble 3 has successfully arrived at CASTLE BASE with doctor Halsey." The AI reported, causing 6 to feel somewhat relieved. "Noble 6, your current position is currently being monitored by nearby covenant forces."

"I noticed." 6 said as he spotted the faint silhouettes of elites on a ridge in the distance. "Are there any remaining operational launch facilities left in the area?"

"Negative, though a facility is nearby it has since been declared non-operational and was evacuated prior to the launch of the PILLAR OF AUTUMN with all known remaining local UNSC personnel."

"Can you access the inventory of the facility at least? Pelicans, Longswords, Sabers, anything?"

"Negative, facility inventory records have been purged for security purposes."

"Give me something Dot, is there any way I can still access it?"

"The facility is currently 3.5 kilometers west from your current position."

"Not what I asked Dot."

"Scans indicate the facility power management system is still active."

"I'll take it then." Six muttered as he broke off chatter with the failing dumb A.I. The Spartan changed his current objective and began to search around for an active vehicle. He knew he'd come under fire the moment he found something flight worthy if he could. Something that also stuck in his mind was the possibility of still being shot it in a warthog as well but it would be worth the trouble. All he had to do was get into orbit and then slingshot back down to castle or maybe hideout in one of the shipwrecks in space. The spartan went to work reusing the battlefield for travel-ready vehicles, most machines being burned out husks or scrap heaps. It didn't deter him from holding on to a sliver of hope to survive the death of reach. 6 kept up his search as the atmosphere burnt away around him with the ground itself starting to burn simply from the proximity to glass-lands that were being formed. The spartan spotted an intact falcon and sprinted towards it, the vehicle had some minor damage but it still seemed flight worthy at least. 6 opened the falcon's canopy and hopped inside just as several elites appeared, some of them bearing heavy weapons. The spartan worked quickly to get the vehicle online just as a fuel rod gun was leveled at the falcon's position. With a few precious last switch flips, the falcon's engines coughed out a black smoke cloud before the rear jets ignited and the turbines spun up. No time was wasted on ascending more than a foot from the ground as 6 set the engines to maximum output. The barrage of heated plasma was narrowly avoided at the last possible moment when the aircraft rushed forward. Elites began firing their weapons rapidly at the escaping spartan, who only flipped them off as he took to the air.

Once in the skies, 6 focused on getting to the facility Dot had mentioned to him, intending to get off the dying world alive. He knew he wouldn't long before banshees would be on his heels and he was without support, though not completely defenseless since the helicopter still had a functioning chain gun. AS the moments went by in relative silence, aside from the whir of the falcon's turbines, 6 breathed in an effort to relax himself. He would survive this, of course it would be a while before he'd reunite with Jun though not that it mattered at that point. 6's musings were interrupted by the all too familiar hum of banshees and moved to evade a fuel rod shot from the squadron leader. He rolled the bird onto it side and then dropped down to evade a burst of plasma bolts from another banshee. The spartan pilot gritted his teeth and soared onward to his destination with the banshees keeping pace behind him. Minutes later 6 cold make out the sight of another empty battlefield below him with scattered wrecks and corpses in a defensive posture. The banshees stepped up their tactics and attempted to shoot down the falcon from several angles at once. The spartan took some fire from a lucky banshee pilot and the right turbine began to burn badly. It didn't cause him to worry much since he was almost at the launch site, several ONI markings were present denoting the base as one of their possible black sites. More banshee fire grazed the falcon and an alarm began to blare as the abused helicopter began to lose altitude. Within the span of two minutes the beaten down bird's engine had complete failures and 6 held on as the bird plowed into the ground. The banshees soared overhead and came around for another pass, leaving 6 with little time to escape the bird before it would be destroyed.

-CLASSIFIED ONI FACILITY-

The spartan barely reached a jammed open bunker door that had nearly been buried, possibly due to ONI's hasty attempt at asset denial. He slid under a large rocked that held the door open just as the banshees fired on the doorway, finishing what ONI started. 6 got back up to his feet and activated his night vision, although it was heavily obscured by the cracked visor. As he proceeded through the empty facility, an almost ghostly feel permeated the dark halls that surrounded him. He turned a corner and carefully pointed his gun into the hallway to avoid begun taken by surprise. The sounds of sparks and steam hissing echoed eerily as he continued his search of the deserted base. Eventually he reached what appeared to be an experimental mag-launch area, complete with a prototype magnetic accelerator in place of a traditional launch catapult or runway. An opening could be seen at the far end for where the air/space craft could leave covertly. Everything seemed to be in working order so why had Dot reported the facility as non-operational? 6 contemplated the matter briefly but just chalked it up to ONI being ONI, and he had a modest amount of knowledge regarding their methods from his time as an assassin. As he approached the rear of the accelerator, he found a sight that would have many pilots smiling, an armed prototype ONI prowler. The ship bore a resemblance to a sleek fighter rather than a stealth and observation vessel as it had two visible autocannons for defensive combat capabilities. On the ship's hull in bold lettering was its designation, UNSC BRIMSTONE. From what 6 could see, ONI had outdone themselves with the vehicle's attractive design as he let his eyes wander over it, his mood being akin to a child with a new toy.

6 approached the rear of the vessel and found himself witness to another dead spartan who'd dropped his helmet. What made him curious about his fallen comrade was the fact that the corpses of an elite zealot team were inside the vehicle's aft bay as well. He hauled the creatures out one by one and then looked over the dead spartan for anything useful. He recalled what Dr. Halsey had said during the team's meeting with her and decided to also search around for any clues as to why the elite Zealots were even here. An intact and upgraded ODST Mjolnir helmet was what 6 felt good to see as he swapped his broken helmet for the new one. The helmet snapped on with an audible hiss of air as the pressure seals activated. He looked at himself in a pane of reflective glass and smirked at his new gear. What he saw was a CBRN/HUL upgrade with a silver visor, luckily for him it was already painted black with white stripes as per ONI's preferred color scheme. He then returned to searching for the clues of why the zealots had come to this facility specifically. One idea he considered was checking the base's main console for intel. Suddenly a loud bang echoed throughout the empty halls, garnering the Spartan's full attention.

6 turned away from the ship to hear the sounds of more explosions in the direction he'd come from. He could only assume it was the covenant, probably unhappy that he was trying to escape instead of accepting his fate. The spartan ran for the control room and spotted several corpses of ONI personnel, all of them having either shot themselves or been killed by the Elites who'd overwhelmed the dead spartan. 6 ran to the main console and spotted the base commander who still held the detonator as well as a data chip in his hands. 6 figured it may be an AI storage chip, and he figured he might need an AI's help to navigate to a safe set of coordinates to link up with the UNSC. Without any hesitation, he pocketed the mysterious data chip and the detonator that he had no doubt was rigged to destroy the facility. From his perspective it was obvious the commander had died before the base could self-destruct could be initiated. 6 then went over the main console and furiously typed on the keys in his effort to boot up the mag-launcher for an emergency launch. He really wished Kat was still around as this would've been her area of expertise. After another explosion at the bunker doors 6 finally activated the launch bay doors and the countdown was initiated. He ran for the launcher and boarded the prowler immediately as the automated emergency countdown sequence progressed. The spartan sprinted rapidly to the pilot's seat and strapped himself in for the imminent launch. He took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for a return to space and the sight of the massive graveyard that would be waiting for him in orbit. As the countdown reached zero, covenant forces swarmed into the facility after having breached the doors. 6 relaxed his grip on the stick and focused when the engines ignited and the accelerator flung the ship along its path. With an extreme amount of kinetic force propelling him towards the heavens once more, the spartan mentally said goodbye to the dying planet, welcoming the vast darkness in front of him. He reached into his hardcase and picked up the detonator, internally smirking as he pressed the switch.

Covenant forces for miles around had seen the trail of smoke and gazed at the fleeing human spacecraft in hatred. Only seconds later as the ship disappeared into the void, the place it had fled from erupted into a cloud of fire and smoke, burying the alien forces inside under a mountain of scorched rock. An elite looking at the scene imagined it being as if a demon had banished his brothers to hell and damnation itself. After several minutes the flames died down, a pile of rocks and massive black cloud of smoke being all that remained of the mysterious ONI facility. Out of giant smoke cloud a battered ODST Mjolnir helmet plummeted to the ground. Landing with a thud, the damaged piece of equipment settled into the scorched dirt as if to watch the beams turn the planet surface to glass.

6 engaged the ship's stealth functions with a few simple clicks of several switches and gazed into the junk filled void. He knew had to get away from reach as soon as possible to avoid being discovered by any covenant space and began checking the prowler's systems for any possible FTL functions. He remembered the AI data chip and pulled it from his hardcase. He knew tactically the program would be useful but his gut told him it would be better to leave it alone for a while. One thing basic had drilled into his head like the other spartans was to always trust his gut instinct, and experience had only added to his trust of instinct. He put the chip away again and maneuvered the ship to hide among an alcove of UNSC ship debris so he could inspect the prowler's systems.

As 6 began his inspection he took a glimpse out of the prowler's windows to see Reach, or what was left of it. He felt his heart sink as the UNSC's fortress world turned a mix of red and silver, if humanity ever turned the tide of the war it would be years before Reach would support life again. Other than Onyx this was where spartans were born, and now it was gone, only a slowly burning husk was left. In the midst of all this, 6 still felt a sense of solace in Jun's survival and his own. A part of him wanted to regroup with his teammate, two headhunters were better than one after all. But he decided not to since it would only draw more covenant attention to the last UNSC stronghold he knew of down there, CASTLE base.

The spartan then went back to his inspection, which then revealed the presence of a prototype slipspace drive ONI had been tinkering with. He felt relieved to know there was actually one on board though he guessed the thing was fairly untested, and therefore dangerous to use. He would never forget what happened to Jorge and the thought of it happening to him on accident was slightly unsettling. 6 figured the amount of experimental technology in the single vessel must have cost ONI a fortune. He put those thoughts aside and went back to the pilot's seat, satisfied with the results of his inspection. Suddenly a large group of hostile contacts appeared the prowler's radar scans, covenant spacecraft that were picking through the UNSC wrecks. The spartan powered down the Prowler's systems and sat very still so as to avoid attracting attention. Only the sounds of the covenant craft were audible as they searched the wreckage for salvage and humans to kill.

For several long minutes 6 waited in silence for the hostile ships to pass over him. He controlled his breathing and calmly looked around to watch the ships go about their search. His fingers itched for him to reignite the prowler's engines and use the slipspace drive to turn and burn. The spartan kept his reaction in check, remaining still for his moment to escape and return to UNSC controlled space. As the ships slowly disappeared from sight, 6 restarted the engines and warmed up the slipspace drive. He punched random coordinates in the nav computer as per the Cole Protocol and hammered down on the thrust controls. With a loud whir and boom the prowler roared out of its hiding place in a burst of bright blue fire. 6 was pretty damn sure the Covenant fighters would be on him in seconds and prepped himself for space combat. Right on que, a seraph space fighter closed in behind him and began firing its weapons. He rolled to the side as the plasma rounds whizzed by the prowler. 6 looped around behind the seraph and opened fire with the defensive autocannons, the rounds damaging the seraph's shield. The alien starfighter tried to evade 6's cannon fire but the shield's gave out and the seraph began to fall apart from the constant machine gun fire. Another seraph appeared behind 6, and right beside it was an entire squadron of enemy space fighters. The spartan pilot finished off the seraph in front of him and looped downward to slingshot himself under the fighter squadron. He rolled again as a salvo of plasma rounds were fired from the seraph fighters in his direction. He glanced at the weapon systems and pressed a button to drop rear mines. A mine dropped out from the back of the prowler and detonated, destroying two enemy starfighters in the blast. 6 gritted his teeth from the g-forces as he pulled a hard turn to dodge more plasma torpedoes. Thanks to its sleek design the nimble prowler's engines held up despite the strain of the pilot's constant evasive maneuvers. The spartan engaged the prowler's afterburners for a short boost of extra speed to continue evading the seraphs. The slipspace drive was ready finally ready for a jump and 6 grinned as he prepared to leave his pursuers in the dust. But just as he was about to jump into FTL a seraph came out of nowhere and fired a plasma torpedo, nailing the prowler's engines. Alarms blared as 6 warped away, the entire nav system glowing emergency red due to a malfunction with the slipspace drive. Anticipating his end, the spartan closed his eyes as a bright white flash occurred in front of him.

-END CHAPTER-


	2. Down to Earth

Halo: Of Wolves and Wagtails

Episode 2: Down to earth

A/N: I appreciate the support for this story, though I would like to ask if anyone reading this would be willing to provide me with some assistance. This is my second attempt a story involving Sekirei and I would also apprecciate help to maintain accuracy with the characters personalities, as I was unable to in my previous story. Please do not flame me, and I apologize if this chapter is lackluster in anyway, as I am trying my best to be faithful to both universes.

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[angryabaco3: Thank you, I'm not entirely decided on who shall be in it yet but you're about to get some big clues who might be a part of it though that is not set in stone at this time.]

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-SOL SYSTEM: EARTH ORBIT: 2019: 22:00 Hours-

In a bright flash a slipspace portal tore itself into existence, violently spitting out a flaming ONI prowler. The ship in question was holding together as it sped towards the blue planet on a crash course from the heavens. 6 held onto the stick as the prowler descended through the atmosphere in a blazing ball of fire akin to a falling star. The alarms on the prowler flashed rapidly as 6 attempted to steady the descent towards earth. Focused on surviving, the spartan held onto the control stick with all his might in order to avoid spiraling out of control. He glanced at the navigation systems and immediately attempted to course correct. The screen had been cracked somewhat due to the explosive damage caused by the impact of the plasma bolts that spread throughout the prowler, leaving 6 in the dark on his location status.

The prowler continued to streak across the nightly heavens with a sonic scream as it hit terminal velocity. Soon enough the ground had begun to appear, creeping ever so closer as the ball of fire careened its way downward. 6 could see skyscrapers coming into view and attempted to alter his course away from the towers of concrete and steel. He barely missed hitting what was perhaps the tallest tower among the rest. The searing heat of prowler's vibrant flames ignited several trees as it came crashing down into what 6 concluded was an arboretum of some sort. With a mighty boom the Prowler hit the ground, sending out a deafening shockwave and plowing through several groups of trees in a spectacular display of destruction. Strangely enough though it seemed as if the mighty towers of nature had actually cushioned the impact on the prowler's hull rather than tearing it apart. The spacecraft slowly halted as the kinetic force it had accumulated dispersed into the ground, but some of the flames around it continued to burn brightly. Upon impact everything had gone black for the spartan, unconsciousness arriving instantly.

-SYSTEM ERROR: UNKNOWN LOCATION [Mjolnir Mk. V |MOD| ODST Config.] HUD SYSTEM REBOOT: Initializing… HUD SYSTEM REBOOT: Complete-

6 groaned as he opened his eyes and stretched his limbs with several audible pops as he did so. The spartan blinked several times as his Mjolnir armor's HUD began to reboot. So far it seemed that his armor was intact as well as his joints since his bones were almost unbreakable. He looked around the cockpit but all he could see besides his HUD was darkness as the ship's power seemed to be offline except for some emergency buttons and highlighted switches. The spartan began checking the various activation controls and brought some of the systems online. Several screens, lights, and other consoles began booting up in gradual succession afterwards. He then listened as the ship's main console began to power up and prepare a status report.

"Main system active…. primary reactor online. Warning, Navigation and Propulsion systems offline, slipspace drive status: inoperable; immediate repairs required. Checking Cryo status…. Error: Cryo stasis systems offline or damaged. Communications system at 50% functionality." The main terminal's computerized voice reported. This made the spartan sigh in annoyance as he listened to the computer's checklist of damages to the prowler's systems. He began to stand up grunting somewhat thanks to the aches he'd acquired from the crash. 6 put a hand on his helmet and shook his head to rid himself of his slight disorientation. With a deep breath the spartan relaxed and began making his way to the rear of the prowler. He knew he had to figure out his location before he could broadcast any messages considering the fact that he may have landed in hostile territory. Eventually the he reached the rear hatch and pulled a manual release switch to open it.

The door opened to reveal a green forest surrounding the ship including the scars left upon the ground from his wreck the previous night. 6 looked up to the sky to see a bright sun having just risen into the sky. From his best guess the spartan believed the time to be around 7:00 am local time in the morning though he didn't know for sure. 6 reached for his rifle and began checking it over for a brief moment before he would venture off into the surrounding woods. Upon inspection the trusty assault rifle seemed to be in good working order since any damage to it was purely cosmetic so far. After finishing his brief inspection of the weapon, the surviving spartan began to walk away from the wrecked Prowler. The sounds of nature echoed around him peacefully as he strode through the temple of green beauty. It seemed to him that the forest radiated a calm and peaceful aura, like he was being welcomed. His hardened instincts didn't appear to have anything to warn him about other than that he was being watched. 6 carefully scanned the area for hostiles as he proceeded forward through the dense foliage and plant life surrounding him. He made sure not to appear alert so as to maintain an illusion of unwariness to draw in who or whatever was following him had less than friendly intentions. Although he couldn't help feeling a calming sensation from the trees and plant life, even the sounds of the small creatures made him want to feel at peace. Normally he would ignore such a feeling and focus on his objective, but still it persisted.

A rustle from a nearby bush caught 6's attention and he snapped his aim to it. The spartan checked his motion tracker but the readout was clear from what he could see. Out of curiosity he proceeded slowly towards the bush with his gun ready to fire. He pushed the foliage aside to find nothing of interest by the way of any tracks or markings to indicate something had been nearby. 6 sighed in annoyance and holstered his rifle before going on his way once more through the forest. Trying to center his thoughts on the road ahead, the lone spartan focused on the seemingly convenient trail that had taken shape in front of him. Part of him questioned where it had come from but his experience with NOBLE team told him to accept it, despite the fact that it seemed like he was being led somewhere. Although the further along the trail he went, the more he began to hear a slightly audible whisper in the air.

6 eventually spotted a fork in the path ahead of him. He stopped to consider which path to take, one side seemed to lead deeper into the heart of the tranquil forest, while another pointed towards a clearing and sounds of an urban sprawl. The whispers among the trees seemed to call him to the other path, wanting him to proceed deeper into the forest, 6's gut was silent on the matter though. He decided to leave the forest and return later to investigate whatever was calling out to him since it wasn't going anywhere. The spartan went towards the break in the foliage and found himself staring at an unfamiliar city. He stared at the buildings curiously as he reached the outer boundaries of the forested area. From what he could see in front of himself, something was wrong, very wrong. Aside from the Japanese language that scrawled on the various buildings and bill boards, the architecture of the structures themselves was radically different from what he remembered of civilian districts on various planets he'd been deployed to or garrisoned on. The spartan noticed a blip on his radar and ducked out of plain view behind a group of shrubs. He quietly listened as the contact passed and then slowly peered out to see a civilian walking by, oblivious to the stealthy super soldier's presence. After the civilian had disappeared from view around a corner, 6 looked up into the sky and spotted a helicopter soaring overhead, its design being bizarrely archaic like that of a 21st century military vehicle. He could faintly make out three large white letters on the tail end of the helicopter, MBI.

6 turned his attention away from the helicopter and focused on a small gleam from a nearby building. The source of the sparkle had been a security camera that had been uncovered by the sunlight. The feeling in his gut told him that this was an omen, and so he picked up a large rock and threw it at the security camera, shattering the lens and blinding it. 6 then sprinted across the street to a nearby alley for cover so as to avoid being seen and attracting and attracting any further unwanted attention. Having a moment alone to himself the super solider began to think on his situation and next move. He needed more information besides his simple observations and any other clues that laid around him in the environment, and to that end he had to find a terminal of some kind to access waypoint or s some kind of data network to confirm his growing suspicions. It burned at the back of his skull, the feeling of being alone in a strange land with no intel at all.

With a heavy sight the spartan began looking around the ally for any way to traverse the area and gain a better view of his surroundings. He spotted a maintenance ladder on the side of the office building and began climbing up the side, causing the ladder to groan and creak dangerously under the full weight of the armored spartan. As 6 continued up he turned his head to the side and bore witness to a massive urban sprawl. If he were to compare it to his experience in New Alexandria, the city he was staring at seemed far smaller when scaled to the mighty urban jungle he'd briefly seen during the fall of reach. But the city was still fairly large, just less so than what he knew to be the standard set by humanity so far. It only added to his confusion on where he was since he had crashed the prowler. Eventually after several close calls with the maintenance ladder's rungs giving out 6 had made it to the building's roof. After he'd hauled himself over the edge of the roof, 6 looked out over the massive expanse of businesses and civilians going about their lives. The more he observed the city, the more it felt like he was not in UNSC territory anymore. Despite how grand his view the vast city appeared to be, it did not help the spartan feel any less lost. Knowing he was going to need the help, 6 decided he had no other choice then to speak with the AI. He looked at the tactical hardcase for a brief moment before opening it and pulling out the fragile chip that held one of humanity's greatest technological advancements. The spartan held it in front of his visor and examined the glowing piece of technology, the chip's core alight with a bright blue glow that signified the presence of the AI. After that he didn't waste another moment and inserted the chip into the back of his helmet with an audible click sound from the chip snapping in place.

Seconds later a female AI's voice began to echo in the Mjolnir helmet's speakers. "Well, you're certainly not who I was expecting." The AI said as her image flickered into view on 6's HUD, a Japanese Shinto priestess with mid length hair and a blue color scheme. 6 felt a strange itch at the back of his mind at how oddly familiar her face was in some way, though he decided not to let the AI know that for now.

"If he was another spartan, then he died, ganged up on by a covenant assault force of zealots." 6 replied bluntly.

"Well that explains that. You're not much of a talker, are you?" The AI said as she crossed her digital arms.

Unamused by her words, 6 decided to get to the finer points of the discussion. "Program, instruction: Identify."

"You don't have to be snippy about it, hmph. Misako, MSK-0597-1, ONI." The AI replied in a huff.

"I guessing you were the Brimstone's onboard AI, correct?" 6 said as he sat down on a ledge.

"Yes, and my files tell me you are Noble-6, or at least that's your current designation B312. Interesting, your structure isn't much different from the Brimstone's." Misako purred cheekily.

"Don't get any funny ideas." 6 narrowed his eyes at the spritely blue digital entity.

"Oh, we are going to get along famously, you and I." Misako retorted with a mock posh tone.

6 grumbled at the AI's sense of humor before settling on his next question. "So, what now?" The spartan asked.

"Figuring out where we are would be a start." Misako replied shrugged.

"More like when." 6 grunted.

"I'm confused, can you speak up? Did you say 'when'?" The AI put a digital hand to her avatar's ear in confusion.

"I could be wrong, but a gut feeling tells me we're on earth… although something's off here. I've been seeing archaic military vehicles, no UNSC markings of any kind, only the acronym MBI." 6 said as he pointe to the direction of the crash site where the helicopters were buzzing around on patrol.

"Scan the area, get me a closer look at one of those vehicles you mentioned, as well as anything with writing on it, billboards, televisions, etc." The AI requested and 6 obliged as he scanned the area with his helmet camera for the AI to see it all from his point of view. The influx of new visual data left Misako with a bit of a conundrum but the pieces were there for her to put together. "I'm using your helmet's communication system to access local radio channels and well…., get a load of this."

"すべての地元のMBI職員は、クラッシュの生存者を探しています。高層部は彼らに尋問を求めています。最初の接触が敵対的であるならば、足跡は都市に西に向かっているターゲットを示します：懲戒チームのための即時!"

"My Japanese is a bit rusty." 6 grunted, clearly unamused.

"Riiight, let me just fix that for you really quick." The AI said playfully as she cleaned up the audio and ran it through a translation program.

"All local MBI personnel, be on the lookout for survivors of the crash. The higher ups want them for interrogation. Footprints show the target heading west into the city, if first contact is hostile: radio immediately for the disciplinary squad!"

"Now what do you figure that's all about? You haven't been causing any trouble have you?" Misako jabbed the spartan with a bit of humor.

"Where would you get that idea?" 6 said sarcastically played along.

"Oh, just the little fact of my home laying in the middle of a crater in the woods." The AI retorted in a snarky tone.

"Just tell me if you have any files on MBI." 6 said tiredly, clearly not in the mood for games.

"No, and that's what puzzles me. Like it or not you're going to have to get me either into their network somehow or at least online so I can get some public information about them. From their large presence it would suggest they're a large organization but definitely not the government, and the brimstone crashing would normally be a military matter. This whole situation presents a lot of questions with plenty of variables." Misako crossed her arms again and scrunched her pretty face in thought. "I'd say we best get some intel on who we're dealing with."

"Then it looks like I have my next objective." 6 replied with confidence.

"Just try to keep your head down, caveman. There's two of us in here now." Misako sassed the brawny spartan.

"Point me in the right direction." The spartan said as a compass marker appeared on his HUD. Suddenly one of the helicopters buzzing over the crash site veered off of its patrol route and began to approach the building. 6 wasted no time in making a move for the ladder and sprinted towards it to avoid being spotted by the helicopter's crew.

"I'd get moving before we're spotted." Misako alerted the spartan as she tracked the incoming helicopter. 6 didn't reply as he slid down the ladder, his titanium boots scraping against the rails and creating a shower of sparks. The sparks rained down as the poles groaned and screeched from 6's rapid decent to the alley pavement. Suddenly the ladder rails began to buckle from the spartan's weight and the concrete holding them to the wall cracked severely. The spartan leapt from the ladder and leapt to opposite wall, then back to the other, repeating the motion until he was on the ground. The helicopter then appeared overhead, its blades droning loudly as the vehicle's crew focused on the spartan's location.

"How'd they find us?" 6 said as he tried to get back against the wall and remain in the shadows.

"Someone probably saw a glint off your helmet visor. Sliver is stylish but it's also a very reflective color ya know." Misako threw in her 2 cents.

"I'll keep that in mind the next time I pick up a new helmet." 6 replied dryly. The spartan attempted to stay in the shadows as he exited the alleyway, carefully peering around the corners for any civilians. Unfortunately for him, it was a busy street full of people living their lives, unaware that a powerful super soldier was now among them. He scanned the street for any means of crossing without being spotted but none presented themselves. The helicopter hovered overhead, the crew having noticed the fallen steel ladder. 6 turned around and ran back towards the forest, at least that street was far less busy than the alternative.

Just as he was about to retreat into the brush of the forest again, a group of mercenaries appeared, apparently having followed his trail. The group of armed men briefly gawked at the sight of the hulking suit of armor before pointing their weapons and shouting angrily. 6 knew he had no choice but to attack and rushed the men in swift fashion to take them down quickly. The spartan rapidly closed the distance before any of the mercenaries could react or pull the triggers on their guns, and then began to beat them up. 6 slammed his fist into the gut of the squad leader and then knocked him into another trooper. Without missing a beat, the armored warrior clenched his fist around throat of a third man and headbutted him before tossing the unconscious man to the ground. The fourth member of the squad was next as 6 dashed towards him and then knocked him to the ground with a powerful backhand. 6 delivered a swift punch to the downed mercenary's face, thus knocking him out cold. As 6 continued to terrorize the men, one mercenary who had taken cover in the brush peeked out at the scene. Thinking quickly, the man reached for his radio and sent out a distress call.

"This is private Hamada of Charlie team, we've been engaged by a hostile contact, requesting immediate assistance now! Now damn it, now!" The panicking private whisper-screamed into his helmet's radio as he shook with fear.

"Ah hell! 6, you missed one! A guy in the woods just called for help! We need to move!" Misako exclaimed. The spartan didn't reply as he proceeded to finish what he started and sought out the last mercenary. Shivering rapidly, the man peeked his head out of cover again and was greeted with his reflection in the silver visor. 6 tilted his head to the side slightly and stepped closer, the frightened soldier simply dropped to the ground and attempt to crawl away. On instinct he reached for his pistol but the spartan beat him to the punch and had disarmed the man. He began to beg for his life and shut his eyes in fear of death. Having toyed with his prey enough, 6 slapped the man hard enough to knock him out and then turned to run in the opposite direction of any approaching MBI forces. "Personally, I think saying boo would've been better." Misako said humorously as 6 broke into a sprint and began to dash away from the area. 6 mentally sighed at the AI's remark, continuing his sprint down the street, away from the approaching sirens.

Misako used the armor's sensor systems to map out the area as the spartan charged forward. She hit pay dirt and marked the location of a nearby alley with a manhole cover for 6 to escape into the safety of the city sewers. 6 sprinted hard to the alley and skidded along the pavement as he made the sharp turn, with an MBI commandeered police car rapidly closing in on him. The spartan quickly scanned the alley and found the cover, dashing to it and lifting up. He then hastily jumped into the safety of the city's underground and out of sight of the passing patrol car. Looking back up at the hole, the spartan slid the cover back over the open hole just as the patrol car passed the alley. The AI, having set the compass when she was plugged in, pointed the way to 6's destination through the maze of sewer tunnels.

-MBI TOWER: HOURS LATER-

The skyline of Tokyo/Shinto Teito glowed with light as night settled like a blanket over the mega-city and the moon shown above the most important tower in the city, the headquarters of MBI. In an office at the top of the building two individuals were discussing recent events. One of them was a woman with a lab coat, grey hair, grey eyes, and a scar over her left eye. The other individual in the office, the CEO of MBI, was a man with wild white hair, a lab coat, glasses and white gloves.

"I don't see why you're not concerned about this Minaka." The woman growled to her superior.

"Oh Takami, you're simply not thinking of the possibilities! This new development could mean wonders for the game, I say it's a cause for celebration! A new player sent from the heavens to make those little birds fly, it seems almost poetic! Not to mention the potential of the advanced technology aboard the ship our visitor brought with them!" Minaka said with his usual gusto.

"A hostile visitor! That thing, whatever it was, beat those men as if it wasn't human! Almost like it was toying with them! Adding to that, we have no idea where it is hiding, or what it wants!" Takami retorted.

"Then why don't we go over what we have so far instead? Besides, it has nowhere to go without it's vessel, if we are patient perhaps our unruly guest will reveal themselves to us." The CEO said tactfully.

"Fine, from the detailed account those troopers gave me, this individual moves at an almost un-trackable pace in combat, far exceeding human capabilities. The manner in which it handled the team proves that it's ruthlessly efficient, though either prone to error or it has a twisted sense of humor. From the physical description it was around seven feet tall, and covered in advanced metal plating, and the helmet or head had a reflective silver visor of some kind." Takami described the mystery being.

"Well at least it has personality." Minaka remarked.

"You really aren't taking this seriously." The tired scientist sighed.

"On the contrary, I'm going to be cautiously optimistic! We simply need to wait. Now, I want you to get the teams on track to recover that ship, we must know the technological secrets it holds within!" The CEO said as he lifted a hand in the air.

"That's going to be difficult considering all the very strong plant life surrounding the wreck." Takami shook her head.

"It does not matter, soon enough all will be revealed." Minaka grinned madly.

-END CHAPTER-

A/N: please share your thoughts and opinions. Did you all like my interperatation of 6? And do you like Misako? Also, I am considering involving/resurrecting Emile or Jorge, not saying I will do it, just a thought. please let me know your thoughts on the story everyone.


	3. Spartans, Snakes, and Echelons

Halo: Of Wolves and Wagtails

Episode 3: Spartan, Snakes, and Echelons

A/N: Sorry for the delay I tried my best with this episode. Please don't flame me if I messed up n any way, constructive criticism is welcome though. If I need to I will redo some parts, but only if I really have to. I will make it clear though, I'm pegging this as straight up time travel. In a way it might be more believable than inter-dimensional travel if I want to get 6 "BACK TO THE FUTURE" (Get it?), plus it ain't over done. As far as I'm concerned maybe the sekirei came either from **ANOTHER GALAXY** in the Halo universe **OR** at the very least were **SAFE** in a **DIFFERENT ARM** of the galaxy that went **UNTOUCHED** by the Rings' fire, Forerunners, Covenant, and especially Flood.

PS: I have not set an official list of ladies for 6 (and his battle brothers if they show up) yet, besides Uzume. Some have recommended that I keep it small, and others have suggested I go bigger. I need some more opinions on that if anyone else wants to throw in their 2 cents. Some that have been rolling around in my head are Matsu, Ku, Karasuba, Benitsubasa and Haihane, The Twins, Tsukiumi, Kazehanna, Homura (Female), even Musubi and Yume [ **BUT** **ONLY IF 6 REPLACES MINATO** ] (Which I kinda want to do).

Please advise, folks! And I hope get the references I made.

-dman

Originally posted on May 3 2019

* * *

[ThePizziaMan: Thank you, I will try my best.]

[spirited gorrilla: I'm glad I got it right, please correct me at any moment if I stray too far from his character.]

[Helghast Honored Guard: I really like those ideas. I'm not sure which I want to do if I do decided to do them.]

[Ascendedhumanity: It's certainly possible but I like to think Minaka prepared for at least something along the spectrum, especially since he's dealing with an unknown variable in his equation like 6. Matsu isn't the only brain type at this point in time, there could be others out there.]

[edboy4926: I really really want to man. I will not lie, the idea is so damn appealing! I love Bioshock 2! But if I do, it will be difficult since I had originally intended for 6 to get Ku.]

[broly999: Thanks! Not a bad idea, it would certainly be really cool. And I would have the perfect long lost UNSC starship in mind to help out if they do, if you get my drift.]

[Shadex2: He didn't have the chance, and the Prowler was too damaged to activate even the manual self destruct. I might recall Halo CE: Flawless Cowboy, if that makes sense ,it's certainly part of what inspired chapter 2.]

[Slim A Lou Prime: Great, thank you. I really want to! It would be awesome to have them clash,

* * *

-TOKYO UNDERGROUND-

The spartan and AI had been wandering the underground for quite some time, the eerie silence of the storm drainage tunnels and sewers making them glad to have each other to talk to, or at least Misako was. But as time ticked by, and only the sounds of water dripping or water pipes flushing their contents to some other part of the city, even the easy-going AI was starting to get a bit bored. Finally, after running out of things to think about out loud, the tedium of waiting got the best of her.

"So that's about 10 hours we've been down here… in these tunnels…" The AI sighed, or at least imitated one as well as she could. "Remind me again, why haven't we gone back up to the surface?" She asked her partner.

"Mapping the tunnels, and staying off the streets until dark so we find a secure place to hold for the time being without being discovered by civilians or authorities." 6 rounded a corner leading down another side tunnel.

"That's your excuse? You do understand I could hack a 21st century data network so easily that we could just download one, right? And there could be plenty of places to hide-" Misako started to rant to her partner.

"The surface is controlled by hostile forces, and if we are in the 21st century… I have to… restrain myself." The Spartan pointed out the obvious facts in a deadpan tone.

"Oh right, time travel… which means almost no killing or really bad things could happen, like fading out of existence." Th AI chuckled nervously. "You know, that's only ever been theorized, but here we are. Ya know, you and I are the first UNSC personnel to successfully travel through time." Misako tried to lighten the mood of their conversation.

"By accident." 6 clarified. Though Misako was undeterred by the Spartan's somewhat depressing attitude.

"Oh, you are killing me with the negative attitude!" "Seems pretty lousy for a hotshot Sabre pilot to go down that easy in a dogfight." The AI said playfully.

"I was flying a Prowler, not a starfighter…." 6 stated in an attempt to save face.

"Blaming it on the machine, are you?" Misako crossed her digital arms.

"No, I was just outnumbered and improperly equipped." The spartan replied.

"Well I will give you that, from your helmet's logs it seems that way." The AI relented in her teasing of the super soldier. "Still it's hard to believe, …Reach is gone, or it will be." Misako said in a somber tone.

"It's best not to dwell on it. For now, we just keep going." 6 suggested to Misako.

"Well what can we do?" The AI shrugged.

"We do our best to keep the future on track: that means either recovering the prowler or destroying it." The spartan dutifully replied.

"I think it's a bit too late for the Cole Protocol. Not to mention my logs indicated that before I was yanked from the ship in the first place, it didn't have the ordinance aboard for you to blow it up. The manual self-destruct was probably out too. Even ONI can't be ready for everything." Misako explained the issues with her partner's plan.

"Doesn't matter, that's one of our primary objectives." 6 said stoically in response.

"Better get a move on then, lieutenant." Misako said confidently, directing the spartan to a nearby service exit from the tunnels. Luckily for the spartan the ladder rungs were simply holes in the concrete, and strong enough to hold his suit's weight as he ascended to the streets above.

-TOKYO STREETS: NIGHT-

When the sun had faded from view, the cold grip of night had fallen over the city and dark clouds had rolled in. They blanketed the shining bright skyline of the mega city in a cloak of gloomy darkness and cracks of thunder began to boom in the direction of the harbor. With one hand 6 pushed up a steel manhole cover and peered through the open slit to see another alley where it would be safe to exit. The spartan slid the cover away and made his way out of the hole, casually replacing the cover afterwards. With a brief scan of the area and the rain starting to pour down, Misako gave 6 an all clear to maneuver in the shadows of the city's night covered streets.

"Alright it's clear, now get me into a terminal at an MBI facility or connect to something with direct access to their network. Thanks to radio transmissions I've intercepted from their 'security forces', the nearest one should be a few blocks away, a heavily guarded freight yard with an adjacent research facility. I'm betting it's an ammo dump and it might be where they took the prowler to boot. Marking it on your HUD now." Misako said coolly, providing her partner with his next objective. "Before you ask, I don't want to leave a trail for them to follow from some random computer." She added curtly.

"You're an ONI smart AI from our time, you should be able to cover your own tracks easily." 6 said as he began making his way through the back alleys to his destination.

"Oh, you're right on the fact that I could easily demolish their security like you can crush a soda can with your titanium boot. But it'd be showing them we're something to really be afraid of, and not in a good way for us. We have to be smart about this, you of all people should know that." The AI sassed him with a line of logic he could not dispute.

"Being cautious, that I can understand. The bigger a threat we are to them, the more visible we become, and the more eager they are to hunt for us." The spartan agreed. He hid in the shadow of a passing truck and latched onto the rear as it passed a three-way intersection. The driver looked into his mirror and briefly blinked his eye as a flash reflected off the mirror, the mystery figure having disappeared.

"Exactly, I knew you would get it as a former ONI… specialist." Misako paused briefly knowing she might've strayed into a touchy subject. "Nice move by the way." She attempted to walk it back with a compliment.

"Thanks. And don't bring that up again." 6 grunted while he stood atop the truck.

"Right, you probably don't want to remember that." Misako said nervously.

"Yeah, I don't." The spartan replied, clearly irritated by the AI's delve into darker parts of his past.

The AI knew it was best not to linger on that subject and moved onto more important matters. "Anyway, I've scanned a bit of our surroundings and the depot should be close by. Ideally we want to leave as small a footprint as possible."

"Understood." The spartan replied. He watched as the city passed him by, the nighttime atmosphere feeling almost familiar in a way. He could recall plenty of ONI assassinations he'd performed against insurrectionists, some of them being within the cities of various worlds he'd visited on a mission.

Nightfall was always the best time to kill a target, using the darkness as cover for infiltrations and exfiltrating after the job was done. His work in that regard was mixed though, killing entire militias was never an easy task, but certainly not impossible. He also knew it was the best time for an ambush, so long as he was quiet of course. After several minutes of driving through the crowded city streets and remaining flat against the roof of the truck, the tall skyscrapers began to fade from view and industrial facilities replaced them.

The truck drove towards the MBI depot and proceeded to turn away from the direction of the yard MBI research facility and freight yard. 6 noticed this and stealthily hopped off of the truck's roof, landing in a crouched position. After getting to his feet, the spartan began to jog through the rain soaked industrial area to his objective. The city's industrial sector was mostly dark aside from some workers pulling a night shift at certain facilities. That simple fact made the place quiet enough for 6 the avoid worrying about civilians spotting him.

In all his years working for ONI, 6 knew to trust his gut when it came to the possibility of unexpected guests. And as he ran through the mostly empty industrial yards, 6 couldn't help but sense that something was off. He felt almost like he was being watched by someone or something in the shadows besides himself. Misako hadn't alerted him to anything else in the area beside the cars on the street nearby.

After a half hour of running, 6 finally reached the perimeter of the offsite research facility. Knowing he needed a better view of the situation, the spartan climbed the side of a warehouse for a better tactical assessment. Once he was in position 6 zoomed in with his visor and activated the night vision function to scout out targets and gather tactical data.

"Alright, let's see what we're dealing with…" 6 murmured as he scoped out the heavily secured complex.

"That's quite the security detail… make ya wonder if they're expecting something." Misako whistled at the level of defenses around the facility. She pinged several patrolling guards to the HUD and predicted their routes.

"Just another reason to be cautious." The spartan grunted. He took note of the abundance of security personnel on patrol as well as a large independent generator powering the security systems. The searchlights and sniper towers would be a problem if he didn't kill the generator and the alarms would also make things tricky in case a guard team found him. There were also a few vehicles in the area, perfect for using car alarms to his advantage as distractions. Doing things quietly seemed like the best option, he did have an obligation to keep bloodshed to a minimum. Having seen enough of the facility's outer layout, 6 carefully made his way back down to the street level.

6 quietly approached the entrance to the cargo sector, taking great care to avoid alerting a patrol team of guards. One of them briefly spotted a glint out the corner of their eye. But when the guard investigated the source of the disturbance, only to find an empty soda can on the pavement. With that mystery solved, the guard returned to his team, unaware that a super soldier had just passed him by. The spartan sighed in relief and continued on his way to the secured main gate, thankful that the rain was masking his infiltration and that someone had been lazy enough to leave a soda can laying around.

Upon his arrival at the gate, Misako pointed out a vandal proof security camera that would certainly give away 6's position if he stepped into its field of view. He activated his camo unit and steatlhily approached the small guard house. Quickly spotting the security guard getting up to check the monitor, 6 pulled a bullet casing from his magnum and tossed it in the guard's direction. As the guard pulled out his weapon and scanned the direction of the strange sound, 6 had already snuck by him into the facility.

Once he was passed the gate, the patrols had increased and workers on duty added a civilian factor to the mission. 6 clicked his tongue and continued further along, hiding behind shipping crates and cars within the lot as he did so. A patrolling guard happened to be taking a smoke break by the generator, putting him in 6's way. The spartan picked up a traffic cone and then glanced back at the guard.

Misako caught on and did the math, calculating an arc for 6's throw. With the info on his HUD, 6 hurled the cone at the man's head, knocking him unconscious with a quick thump. The spartan approached the generator and briefly checked the guard's pulse, seeing that he as still alive. Misako remarked that he'd have a pretty nasty headache when he came to.

6 reached the cage surrounding the generator and quickly smashed the lock with his rifle butt. The metal door creaked open and 6 proceeded to pull the switch, knocking out the rest of the security cameras and any spotlights. But as a result, the security teams were no on alert with their flashlights on to compensate for the lack of better lighting. He shook his head and pulled out his knife before moving out again.

6 ducked behind a group of barrels as a guard's flashlight passed over him. The guard turned his back to the barrels for a moment too long, getting dragged backwards and then knocked out. He dumped the unconscious guard behind the barrels and stealthily avoided another approaching security team by climbing on top of a steel container. The guards strolled right by without ever noticing the presence of the armored super soldier or the fact that one of their comrades was out cold in the shadows.

Not wasting a single second, 6 moved along the top of the container and silently dropped to the pavement beside a small building attached to the main facility. Misako translated the Japanese kanji on the wall and told 6 that the smaller part of the building was marked as the armory. 6 grinned at that welcome little development, and quietly opened the unlocked door. What he could was see a computer and a desk in the far corner, and a man dressed in black combat gear with a clipboard in his hands, apparently taking inventory of the ammunition.

Misako marked the guard and the computer. "There's an access terminal over there, on the desk. Yank me after you deal with the guard, 6. It's time we got some important intel on what we're dealing with." 6 silently acknowledged her, and crept up behind the guard, delivering a quick punch to the back of his skull. The guard tumbled to the ground and 6 sat him down on a chair to make look as if he had simply fallen asleep on break. With that done, he inserted Misako's data chip into an open slot on the side of the terminal's main unit.

"Well… that's interesting." Misako paused. "It didn't really click until now, but MBI is actually the parent company of Optican. MBI also runs a LARGE private network of medical aid and research stations they lease to the UNSC, like one in the inner colonies designated Angel On My Shoulder. All of that makes it one of the largest UNSC medical contractors in our time…" She explained to her partner.

"…Destabilizing the company could negatively impact the future." 6 finished.

"Unfortunately, yes. It's strange though, this terminal is connected to their network and I am going through it like there's no tomorrow, but it's compartmentalized…" Misako commented on the lack of data.

"What do you mean?" The spartan asked in confusion.

"I mean, there's a lot of details missing. Plus, I can't access the 21st century world wide web through this server, it's been disabled from allowing outgoing traffic access. Sure, there's some reliable background here that leads me to the right conclusions about the future, but there's no leadership data at all, or other technological information besides that they're looking at the Prowler here." The AI explained.

"You can't access it?" 6 tilted his head.

"What?! NO!" The AI snapped. "IF IT WAS HERE, I could get it as easily as snapping my fingers, but I just can't magically find what **isn't** here. I'm an advanced military AI, not an enchantress, as much as I wish I was one." She replied, grumbling the last bit.

"Focus." 6 ordered.

"I am focused. The point is, someone either moved the facility's previous research and logistical data to another site, or deleted them entirely from the facility's closed intranet. That's mighty suspicious if you ask me." Misako narrowed her eyes.

"Then just get me an internal layout of the facility and the prowler's location." 6 asked his AI companion.

"…Done, I'll upload it to your HUD when you plug me back in. And I've marked some escape routes in case this goes south." Misako snapped her fingers.

After that, the spartan raided the supply of weapons and ammunition, reloading his assault rifle magazine with 7.62 rounds from an ammunition crate. He would have to depend on it since the ammunition for his shotgun and magnum were significantly more difficult to acquire. Fully stocked on replenishable ammunition, 6 picked up 4 grenades from another crate, along with several pounds of C4, and discovered a suppressor on one of the shelves. Misako analyzed the attachment for compatibility and gave her partner the green light for use on the assault rifle. 6 stored the suppressor in his tactical hardcase for later and made his way out of the armory.

-SEVERAL MINUTES LATER-

From there on, 6 made his way through the halls of the inner facility with several close calls along the way. As the duo proceeded deeper into the complex, the spartan could feel his gut telling him something was off, even with the tighter security and heavily armed patrols. Misako simply chalked it up as par for the course when it came to mega corporations with a new piece of technology. Eventually arrived at a large steel hangar door that was marked TOP SECRET in large white letters and covered in red security lights.

"This is it 6. The prowler should be right on the other side." Misako said as the stopped in front of the door. "There should be an access panel to right where you can splice me in." she marked the access point on his HUD and he ripped the panel from the wall with his power-armored glove. 6 yanked the AI chip from his helmet once again and spliced the wires into the data chip. A moment later, the metal door flashed green and began to slowly grind their way open.

After returning the AI to her place his helmet 6 took a breath and unholstered his weapon. "I probably don't need to say this but, be ready for what's on the other side." Misako advised her partner. 6 didn't reply, simply stepping through the open door and into the large storage hangar.

The lights slowly began to turn on panel by panel revealing piles of crates and tools along with high tech machinery that would be associated with aircraft repair and assembly. 6 stopped when he arrived at an empty landing pad and a large diagnostic screen that showed a 3D blueprint image of the advanced spacecraft. Suddenly the image of the swapped to a smaller corner image on the screen and the MBI logo took its original place. A loud trumpet sound began to play from the jumbo screen's speakers and WELCOME TO EARTH appeared above the downsized MBI logo.

The welcome screen then disappeared from view and a live camera feed from a lavish office came onto the screen. Sitting on a very comfy looking chair was a man with wild white hair, reflective glasses and a white coat that resembled a cape. "Greetings, I've been expecting you to arrive in search of your vessel. Oh, it's so wonderful to meet a visitor to my fair city, from the infinite sea beyond this world no less!" The man said loudly with a manic grin on his face.

"Who the heck is this loudmouth?" Misako asked.

'That's what I'd like to know.' The spartan thought to himself.

"Ah, but where are my manners? If you are not aware already, I am Hiroto Minaka, Brilliant genius and CEO of the powerful umbrella corporation: Mid Bio Informatics! But you can just call it MBI for short." The manic genius said in a bombastic manner.

6 remained silent at the scientist's bombastic greeting, wearing a deadpan expression beneath his visor.

"I see are not really one for words. No matter, I at least know you can most likely understand my language since your ship has all kinds of markings in English. So how are you finding your visit so far?" Minaka attempted to be cordial with the visitor.

"Want to answer him?" Misako asked her partner. 6 cleared his throat in reply, and the activated the translator functions for his helmet's audio system.

"Where is the ship?" 6 demanded.

"Oh, so you can speak my language, excellent! As for your spacecraft, I'm afraid I simply cannot return it. There is so much to learn from it, and it is an opportunity that is too wonderful to pass up!" Minaka replied.

"Theft of military property is a capital offense. By the authority of the-" 6 growled to the man on the screen.

"Oh, I'm afraid not. You see, I have learned quite a few things from the ongoing process of studying the vessel you arrived on…" The mad genius said with a sinister tone.

"I don't like where this is going big guy..." Misako muttered in a concerned tone.

"Thanks to the damage done to your ship's computer I was able to learn a great deal about the future, and I must say, it's such a wonderfully fascinating place!" Minaka shouted with joy, leaning closer to the camera. "So many interesting topics to choose from, with historical data being incredibly tantalizing! I still have yet to crack the encryption on the more secured files stored within the databanks, but with enough time I will have that information. "

"Siiix..." Misako tried to get the Spartan's attention.

The spartan tightened his grip on the assault rifle as he waited for Minaka's next words.

"And the ship's manifest happened to mention an advanced AI as well. It is very fortuitous that I had prepared for an entity of a similar caliber, otherwise my staff never would have detected her presence. I admit, your infiltration was quite skillful, certainly on par with modern spymasters. But you still followed the bread crumbs I carefully left for you to follow along the way, and you played into this perfectly." Minaka leaned back in his chair.

"This guy's dangerous, all that information is behind a Firewall made by ONI! N-nothing should be able to break it!" The AI stuttered in shock.

"How did you-?" 6 started to say.

Minaka waved his hand dismissively. "Oh, it's as I said, the damage to the ship's main computer was very fortunate. I admit, it would have taken years to crack that encryption even with my level of technology, of course that is by traditional methods. I have ways of expediting the process though. Of course, you forgot to log out as well, Spartan Noble 6."

"6 I'm reading several contacts, they're holding position. But I guess that's just the rest of the welcoming committee. We need to exfil now!" Misako shouted frantically.

"Oh, don't worry, before this gets messy... I actually have a proposition for you." The mad genius said in a calmer tone.

That got 6's attention. "I'm listening..."

"Excellent! It's quite simple, seeing as how you are currently unemployed, how about a job opportunity? We at MBI pride ourselves on hiring some of the best out of work SDF veterans. But wait, there's more...!" Minak rejoiced, sounding like an infomercial announcer.

"He's actually trying to hire us?" Misako deadpanned.

"Apparently." 6 grumbled.

"Do you want to hear the rest of my offer?" The CEO asked.

"Hmmm." The movement on his motion sensors continued pinging the locations of around several dozen MBI troops. So far it was nothing he couldn't handle from his perspective.

"You might want to hurry; the clock is ticking. If you have any intentions on resisting violently, it would be in your best interest not to. All you have to do is just hear me out, I can be quite reasonable about this." Minaka advised the spartan.

"Up to you 6, we can do non-lethal, their firearms aren't going to do much damage from this far back." Misako chirped.

"I'm still here." 6 replied to Minaka.

"Wait, I'm picking up additional contacts on the motion sensors... All the others are moving away from the new ones... in a hurry too." Misako alerted her partner.

"Oh good! Well, your benefits will consist of a wonderful suite in our main headquarters at Shin tower, along with a truly generous salary, and official documents for your citizenship. Another important stipulation will be three special assistants to help you perform your duties. From what I can tell just by looking at you, one of them will be very interested to meet you. In fact, they're on the way right now."

"6, the new contacts are right outside the-" Misako tried to alert the spartan, but there was a sudden explosion on the opposite side of the hangar. 6 slowly turned to see a large hole in the wall and three female silhouettes standing within it. "...Wall..."

"As I expected, your new assistants are right on schedule! Now it's time for the next part of your interview! It's ultimately your decision whether or not to fight, but if you survive, you'll be well on your way to being hired. Good luck!" Minaka said as he leaned back in his seat with a sly grin on his face.

The spartan quickly brought up his weapon and pointed it at the group of unknown women. One of them had red fighting gloves, a kimono-like shirt with one sleeve missing, and pink hair in a side ponytail with two daisy clips. She possessed a very athletic and not overly toned body. Another member of the three woman squad had a bandage-wrapped form, covered by a tattered dark kimono, coupled with disheveled grey hair, a studded choker around her neck, and narrow eyes. The third and final member, wore a grey haori with a strange crest on the left side of the chest, a tight black leather top, a miniskirt and stockings. Her facial features consisted of long light gray hair tied in a ponytail and gray narrow eyes. A long Japanese sword hung from her hip as she stood beside the other two strangers.

"Alright tin man, drop the toy and come with us!" The pink haired squaddie shouted at the 7 foot tall behemoth.

6 simply tightened his grip on the assault rifle, slowly squeezing the trigger.

"I think he's ignoring us." The bandage girl remarked.

"Hey asshole! Didn't you hear what I just said?!" Pinky screeched disrespectfully.

The spartan took his left hand off the fore end of the gun, and flipped her the bird, a gesture he'd seen marines and many of his targets perform.

"Oh, that is it! You're going to die!" Pinky shouted as she charged at the gunslinging future soldier. Before she could get in close, the man unloaded a burst of gunfire from his rifle. The pink haired fist fighter did her best to avoid being shot by the high volume of automatic gunfire. Her partner joined in on the assault to try and divide the shooter's attention.

Predictably, he focused his fire on the pink haired girl just as the slasher closed in on him. But she was extremely surprised when her target flipped out a knife from a sheath on his chest and countered her slash attack in a lightning fast display of speed. The magazine emptied on soldier's rifle, and the pink haired girl grinned when the weapon went click. With the weapon empty, she was free to get in close and rip that tin man to shreds.

"Alright tin man! Now you're going to get it!" She rushed towards her target to deliver a powerful hit upside the head, ready to knock his helmet clear off. Her opponent quickly holstered the empty weapon and swung the slasher girl over his shoulder for a powerful flying toss. Pinky dodged her flying partner and was just about to hit man of steel, only to be blocked by his quick reactions. Her opponent swiftly countered her attack and headbutted the pink haired girl, disorienting her. He then followed it up with a devasting one-inch punch to her stomach. Pinky dropped to her knees as the hit connected, setting up the soldier's next move perfectly.

The machine-like man then levied a brutal door kick to her face, sending the girl tumbling across the floor, even skidding on her face for a brief moment. He barely leaned the right as the slasher girl appeared behind him for a brutal slash. Slasher's attack managed to connect but a shimmering orange hue appeared as she did so. She leapt back and readied her claws for another round with the powerful man in armor. Her target casually rolled his shoulders in response, even briefly twirling the combat knife in his hand before taking a combat stance, and signaling for her to attack.

The slasher girl saw her partner in the corner of her eye, steam from her anger puffing from her ears. She smirked as pinky moved to the charge the spartan from behind. Thinking that the soldier was unaware of her strike, she dashed towards him once more. What really took her by surprise was his swift spin dodge that landed him behind her. A heavy jab struck her back, sending tumbling again and causing her a terrible amount of pain.

Slasher girl ran at the armored man, building up speed and quickly dashing from side to side as the soldier stood there in a calm manner. She gracefully leapt into the air and began a downward flurry of spinning slashes. In order to avoid being cut to ribbons, the soldier stepped back rapidly away from the blizzard of claws. When her attack ended, she briefly left a small window of opportunity for a counter attack.

The armored warrior did not waste the opening in her defense and charged forward, tackling her to the ground. A split second later, before she could react, he delivered a love tap to her face, knocking her out cold. He tilted his head up just as a heavy strike pounded the back of his helmet, flinging him off of the downed enemy combatant. A loud metallic screeching sound echoed throughout the room as the armor scraped against the floor with whoosh of sparks before grinding to halt. With a pained grunt, the soldier stood back up and turned to face the speedy brawler who'd punched him so hard.

"That's for Haihane, you bastard!" Pinky shouted as she stood over the unconscious body of her partner. She briefly turned her over to check on a strange on the beck of her neck, sighing with relief afterwards.

"*grunt* You caught me off guard that time… it's going to cost you." The armored warrior dusted himself off and cracked his neck. The same orange hue from Haihane's earlier attack coated the giant's form and turned blue before disappearing.

"I'll crush you!" The pink haired girl roared furiously and rushed forward. Her fists were blurred from the amount of swift punches sent at the armored warrior. Every jab she threw failed to connect though, angering her even more at how hard it was to hit the infuriating man. Her fatal mistake came as she attempted to throw a haymaker, allowing the large soldier to step inside her guard and deliver an open palm strike to her chest, stunning her. In another quick fluid motion, her opponent grabbed her by throat and hoisted pinky into the air.

"Is that all you've got?" He asked in a daring manner to the pink haired girl. "Because frankly, I'm not impressed."

The girl flailed about violently as the vice-like grip tightened around her throat. She desperately gasped for air and pounded the offending arm, forcing it to drop her to the floor like a rag doll. Pinky huffed and puffed rapidly to get air back in her lungs, but that left her too busy to dodge a swift final blow to the back of her head. In that split second, her entire world went pitch black. The girl's eyes went white as she collapsed to the floor in a battered unconscious heap.

A slow clap echoed from the direction of hole in the wall where the three women had entered the building. In response, the soldier turned his head to face the clapping individual. He could see a slight smirk on her face as she casually approached him.

"Bravo, I have got to say, that was certainly entertaining." The grey haired woman said in a calm tone.

"This is your only warning, get out of my way." 6 grunted as he turned to face her, towering over her slim form with his own 7 foot hulking frame. "I have no quarrel with you."

The grey haired woman shook her head. "That's not going to happen. Noble 6 was it? See, after the beating you gave those two weaklings, you've managed to get my attention. Very few have ever done that." She unsheathed the long blade and pointed it at the spartan. "Maybe you can actually give a me good fight."

"Oh this is going to end badly." Misako remarked.

-END CHAPTER-


	4. Dance with death

Halo: Of Wolves and Wagtails

Episode 4: Dance with death

A/N: Man this chapter was hard to write. I hope you guys like it, but I admit I'm not exactly satisfied with this one though, though it was the best I could do.

Originally posted on 6/25/2019

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[Nemesis Astraea: He could've, but he has a good reason for his restraint.]

[ThatDrocker59: Thanks, I'm doing my best to make this entertaining.]

[Slim A Lou Prime: This is just round 1. :) ]

[Guest: Yeah, 'm certainly leaning that way.]

[Bloodclan: Have you reviewed one of my stories before?]

[Singpu: Thank you for noticing that, I have made a correction to that error.]

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-MBI FACILITY-

6 felt time slow to a crawl as he took a deep breath, activating his spartan time ability. He barely managed to dodge a lightning fast sword strike from the grey-haired woman. The woman's sword grazed his energy shield, causing it to flare brightly from the powerful attack. In that brief span of time 6 brought up his fist and slammed it directly into her back. Due to her inhuman speed being coupled with her new forward momentum, the grey-haired woman was violently thrown forward. Recovering from the shock of her opponent's attack, she somersaulted in the air to gracefully land on her feet.

With calm air of confidence, 6 took a battle stance and unholstered his shotgun. The spartan narrowed his eyes and settled into a CQC stance, drawing his combat knife and holstered the guns. He flipped his hand over and gestured for her to attack him. In a swift flash of movement, the two of them clashed blades with each other, aloud clang echoing from their crossed weapons. 6 changed up his tactics and headbutted his opponent, knocking her back with a loud grunt of pain from the woman. Using his free hand, the spartan made a move to hit his attacker in the abdomen. A loud huff of air and spit left the assassin's mouth as she bent forward in shock. The spartan followed up with a devasting blow from his elbow to the back of her skull that knocked her to the floor.

Time slowed for Karasuba as she fell to the ground. She, the infamous Black Sekirei, was getting a beating from this lower creature, a human from another time. Her thoughts were a mix of both shock and excitement, a human capable of fighting her one on one had aroused her sense of bloodlust more than ever before. She barely recovered from the shock and managed to get a hand under herself to break the fall. She rolled out of the way as the behemoth's boot stomped the ground and cracked the facility's concrete floor.

The black sekirei got to her feet and skillfully twirled her nodachi sword in her hands. She then dashed at the spartan again, slashing rapidly at where he stood. Quick dodges and sidesteps were blurred from the sheer speed of the movements both combatants displayed. Karasuba's blade strikes kept hitting air or grazing the armored man's energy shield, which served to frustrate her quite a bit.

6, now on the back foot, continued to dodge slash after slash from his opponent. He braced himself as the blade grazed his armor, the energy flaring again before dissipating and entering recharge mode. Sparks briefly flashed as the sword's razor-sharp blade skirted across the left ODST shoulder plate.

"Don't tell me this is all you can do!" Karasuba shouted at the spartan as she hacked away at the nimble warfighter from the future.

Meanwhile the AI was busy gathering and compiling data on the extremely powerful killer her partner was facing. If she failed to come up with a solution, it would mean the end for them both. "6, I think I've got a pattern nailed down! DODGE LEFT NOW AND COUNTER!" Misako shouted at her partner. The spartan heeded his partner's advice ducked left and under Karasuba's blade. He followed through with a devastating counter punch to the sword fighter's jaw. The powerful blow sent her reeling backwards in pain, a bit of blood dripping from her lip.

She stared at the small giant with a vicious look in her eyes and a snarl on her face. Shifting her jaw around slightly, she felt a tooth jostling loose in her mouth and just spit it out nonchalantly. "You made me bleed..." Karasuba hissed with a mad grin gracing her lips, licking the blood drops from her lower lip. "Now that's actually going to cost you." The black sekirei leveled her sword at the spartan in a ready position for battle. 6 rolled his shoulders and prepared himself for what was to come. He twirled his knife in his hands, he went into his CQB stance again to stand his ground.

With a quick blur of speed, Karasuba dashed towards him, intent on carving the spartan in half. 6 was barely able to dodge the lethal sword strike in time, the blade grazed the tip of his visor. In an effort to retaliate, 6 raised a leg and kicked his opponent to the side. Having achieved a leg up on his adversary, 6 began trading attacks hit for hit with his opponent.

To an outside observer, the battle would seem almost like a mating dance of death as both fighters attempted to strike each other down with a graceful style to back and forth beatdown. But neither side had made significant progress in scoring a decisive victory each other. For every punch the spartan landed, the nimble assassin landed another slash across the MK. V Mjolnir ODST armor. Strike after strike, sparks constantly flashed from the combatant's blades as the two pieces repeatedly met. 6 was putting significant into fighting Karasuba, just short of lethal attacks, determined to claim victory so he could perform a tactical retreat. The black sekirei had other plans in mind, she was actually enjoying being pushed to her limits by this one human. It had been so long since someone had managed to entertain her with a fight this prolonged, and she embraced the conflict.

The chaos of the fight soon engulfed the entirety of the room, with 6 using containers and machines as cover, only for Karasuba to hack them to bits. In their struggle of wills, both fighters had proven to be determined in conquering the other, and yet the fight seemed to reach a deadlock. Both of them continued to match each other in sheer power, despite the Spartan's use of a simple tactical knife. 6 could feel it though, his blade was never meant for this kind of strain. The combat knife slowly began to bend and crack from the constant beating it suffered as Karasuba hammered her sword down on smaller blade.

"As long as I keep that fancy barrier of yours from coming back up, I can cut you to pieces!" Karasuba shouted viciously at her opponent as both of the locked horns with each other.

"Good luck with that." 6 retorted as he attempted to force the sekirei back.

"Who said anything about luck?" The black sekirei said confidently she and 6 broke off blade contact and jumped backwards. Within the span of seconds, both of them sped towards each other for another round of highspeed clashes. In a bid to mix things up, 6 drew his pistol and fired a round at the black sekirei. But it only proved to be a waste of ammunition as she dodged the magnum round with ease thanks to her sheer amount of speed.

6 had to admit, his adversary's capabilities were proving to be quite the challenge. Guns had become unreliable against the grey-haired assassin, unless used for quick diversionary and counter strikes. The tactical knife was beginning to really wear down, and his arsenal of tactics was thinning by the moment. Fleeing was not an option given the fact that she seemed fiercely intent to engage and destroy him. He had at least one emergency flashbang, but its use would probably be vain as she would most likely track him down even if he were to temporarily escape. Misako though, continued to try pitching him tactical options and feedback on how to keep up with her at least.

Karasuba on the other hand, hadn't felt so alive in years. Whatever the reasoning behind it seemed to be for the moment, she was enjoying the battle for all it was worth. Fighting a worthy opponent like the spartan was not an opportunity she wanted to waste in the slightest. Deep down though, somewhere within her twisted psyche, a small pulse began to beat, and her body steadily began to heat up as the fight dragged out.

Neither side of the of the fight was ready to back down though, and their resolve to win remained strong.

The black sekirei smirked as the both of them finished with their latest clash of blades. "I have to admit; you're actually making this interesting." She said as her cheeks began to heat up to a rosy red and sweat beads ran down her forehead. "But you look like you're feeling tired." Karasuba remarked to spartan.

"I can do this do this all night." 6 replied stoically. His body language spoke otherwise though, from his tensed stance and deep breaths.

"Let's put that to the test then!" Karasuba shouted as she practically flew towards her opponent. 6 brought up the knife to counter her strike once again, but the knife finally gave out and the blade violently shattered in half. Time slowed to a crawl as the spartan leaned backwards to avoid having his head sliced in half by Karasuba's sword. Seeing an opportunity to catch her target off guard, the swordswoman followed up her slash with a low kick that swept 6's legs out from under him. He hit the ground with a loud clank as his armor smacked against the concrete. The black sekirei stabbed downwards to try impaling the spartan, but 6 managed to recover and whipped himself around to knock her down. Seeing her own tactic about to be used against her, Karasuba made a quick hop over the kick. Back on his feet again, the spartan took a defensive stance and signaled for the swordswoman to come after him.

"Did you really have to say you could do this all night? Not to say I doubt you, but the numbers aren't in our favor ya know. We can't keep this up forever." Misako said out of concern for their safety, even going as to far to bring up a small graph on the side of the Spartan's HUD.

"We can't run either." 6 replied, his resolve unshaken by the odds stacked against him and his partner.

"So, our only choice is hold her off until we run out of tricks?! You have a grenade, now would be a good time to use it!" Misako snapped at the spartan.

"It's our only flashbang, the rest are back onboard the Brimstone." 6 retorted coolly to her outburst.

"Doesn't mean you have to be so stingy with it! We blind her and then we get out of here, couldn't be simpler for a getaway plan!" Misako told him frantically.

"If we try to run, we won't get very far at all. Besides, if it's one thing I've learned from my experience… patience can be my greatest asset." The spartan would not budge an inch on the issue.

"You just can't stop playing it cool, can you?" Misako relented and sighed in defeat with a smile on her avatar's face.

As they talked, an impatient Karasuba tapped her custom leather boot against the floor and looked at her wrist, pretending as if she had a watch. After another moment of irritating silence, the black sekirei had decided to break the ice. "What's with the silent treatment, too scared to come at me?" She said with a slight purr in her voice.

6 calmly shook his head as if to silently say 'No'.

"Ah well, it looks like this little dance of ours is almost over anyway since you won't last much longer without your little knife, and that's just too bad. I was actually enjoying this." Karasuba shook her head in disappointment and then began to smile triumphantly. "Heh, I admit you almost fought me pretty evenly, but the difference between us is that you're a pathetic worm like all the rest of your kind. Just another foolish-" She said in a condescending tone but was then interrupted by the spartan.

"You're wrong. You believe you're a weapon, a bringer of destruction, I know I am. The difference between you and me... is that I was built for this." The spartan replied in a determined tone as he tossed his flashbang.

"Gaagh my eyes!" Karasuba screeched in pain and shielded her eyes from the bright flash. She moved her hand away from her face just in time to see the spartan rushing towards her with fist aimed directly at her face. The Spartan's heavy metal fist collided with her face, and the grey-haired psycho raised her blade up to his visor, causing the handle to smack against the reinforced glass. Her blade created a deep gash in the titanium chest plate as she flew backwards, even carving a long scratch along the side of visor while 6 turned his head away to avoid getting his throat cut. Karasuba tumbled across the floor for a brief moment and managed a recovery just in time to skid to halt with her feet under her. An idea then crossed her mind and she grinned sadistically in response. With a loud cry of anger, she charged the spartan once more and threw her sword at his helmet. On instinct 6 caught the blade with his hands right before Karasuba delivered a punishing axe kick to his neck.

6 slid to the side with an ear-piercing screech from his armor grinding against the floor. He careened into the side of a steel cargo container, having formed a large dent upon impact. The shield delay timer still beeped its alarm tone from the amount of time 6 needed to wait before recharge. After taking a deep breath to steady himself, the spartan flexed his muscles and tried to get to his feet once more.

"6! Your shoulder-!" Misako shouted as she brought up a small diagram the Spartan's biocom data.

"It's dislocated, I know." He groaned in pain as he stood back up. 6 coolly rolled his good shoulder and unholstered the M6 pistol from his hip.

Karasuba, having picked up her sword, slowly approached the wounded super soldier with a twisted yet oddly calm smile on her face. Her now battered appearance seemed to give off the aura of a hungry predator that was closing in on its prey for the kill. She stooped a few feet in front of the armored warrior and looked him dead in the eye, or at least where she guessed his eyes were. 6 pointed the gun at her, his trigger finger ready to squeeze the instant his opponent attempted another hostile move.

-SHIN TOWER-

"This is absolutely marvelous!" Minaka munched on a bag of popcorn, his eyes glued to the screen by the display of combat prowess displayed by the spartan as he faced off Karasuba, one of the most lethal of all the Sekirei.

"You do realize that if he actually survives, what's to stop him from simply coming after us?! Especially if he can actually take on the disciplinary squad, including Karasuba?! That alone screams the fact that he's capable of killing everything that moves if he can actually fight her evenly!" Takami shouted in surreal horror at the thought of someone, besides number 1, who was capable of plowing through MBI's forces to get whatever they want without breaking a sweat, including revenge.

"My dear Takami-chan! You forget that we have leverage because of his ship! Oh, I simply have to see what made a human so capable of fighting a sekirei like number 4 so evenly! Is it the armor, or something much more?!" He shouted to the no one in particular as he watched the fight rage on until the fighting had finally halted.

The mad genius though began to grow bored though, since both of them had yet to make a move since the battle had stopped. He tapped a finger to his chin in thought about what to do in order to finally break the stalemate. A devilish smile crossed his lips when the idea struck his mind, and he reached for a remote on the table as well as his phone.

He brought a phone to his ear and began to speak. "Commander, I have new orders for you…."

-BACK WITH THE SPARTAN AND SEKIREI-

"Make a move… handsome." Karasuba chuckled as she eyed the spartan with a predatory gaze.

"You first." 6 said with stone cold resolve.

At that moment a still functional screen activated and Minaka's face flickered into view. "If I may have your attention!" He said excitedly.

"Can't you see we're busy?" Karasuba hissed at the wily scientist.

"Ara, how rude of you, number 4. No matter, I must certainly congratulate the spartan on his wonderful exhibition! It has certainly been spectacular to watch! But I do grow bored, so I have decided to add some more fuel to the fire, think of it as another checkbox for this interview!" Minaka said as he leaned forward in anticipation and pressed a button on the remote in his hands.

"6, he's going to bomb the building! GET MOVING NOW!" Misako shouted at her partner.

Suddenly a series of intense explosions engulfed the surrounding area in a ball of hellfire. Another loud bang signaled the firing of a tank's gun, an explosive round from its gun flew into the room shortly after. The blast sent both fighters soaring away from each other, into the flames and thick black smoke surrounding them.

6 blinked a few times while Misako's voice rang in his ears. "Get up!" Can you hear me?! Get up! We have to evac now!" She shouted at him desperately.

The dazed spartan slowly stood back up, a loud ringing in his ears drowned out the AI's voice. He slowly looked over at the two unconscious girls that he'd beaten a short time ago. Running on auto pilot, 6 dashed over to them through the flames and hoisted the girls over his shoulders.

"What are you doing?!" Misako exclaimed in confusion at the Spartan's actions.

"I'm not leaving them to die like this, and we need information."6 replied coolly.

"Fine, I've mapped out a route to the exit! Just follow the waypoint, I'll keep updating your HUD as we go!" Misako groaned and set a waypoint for 6 to follow through the crumbling warehouse.

A steel beam fell from the roof behind them, crashing onto the floor with more flaming debris. 6, with the added weight of the two women he was carrying, ran along Misako's path as fast his legs would carry him. Flames raged through the halls, alarms blaring loudly in response to the blazing hot hellfire. The spartan ran for several minutes until he reached a T-junction that was blocked by more burning debris. He glanced around the area and spotted a crumbling wall a few feet away and sprinted towards it. 6 then kicked in the wall and jumped through the fire, careful to avoid harming either of the two girls on his shoulders.

The spartan charged past piles of flaming wreckage and weaved through the burning halls, desperate to escape a grisly fate. He skidded around a corner, only to run into a pile of burning wood and metal blocking the hall. Misako then alerted her partner to an emergency fire axe on the wall. 6 smashed his fist against the glass and ripped the axe from its case. With his new tool in hand, the spartan began hacking through the debris with relative ease thanks to his augmented strength. With the debris cleared away, he sprinted into the halls once again, determined to reach a nearby emergency exit that Misako had marked.

Suddenly, a sealed door to a large storage room flung open from the intense heat surrounding it and a huge burst of flames began to chase after the fleeing spartan. 6 looked back on instinct as the flames surged towards him like a ravenous demon. With another huff of effort, he poured on the speed to reach the safety of the research building's exterior. After at least a minute of sprinting for dear life, 6 spotted the exit door that lead out into freight yard. He threw the axe at the door and the exit swung open with a loud crash. The spartan slid out from the burning hall and into the open-air jut as the doorway collapsed and the blast of fire erupted behind him into a large pillar of black smoke.

6 exhaled as he laid on his back with the two girls on top of him, both of them still unconscious from the fight.

"Any more excitement and I might blow a fuse." Misako said in a tired tone.

"I've had worse." 6 nonchalantly spoke as he stood back up. "Any secure locations nearby?"

"Already on it, and we might want to do something about the tracking chips in their necks. I have a little trick if you're interested, and you might want to do it quick, MBI security teams and first responders will be on us pretty soon. And if you're wondering about our little friend, miss slice n dice, security footage that I picked up from working cameras shows her getting out on the other side of the facility." Misako said as she brought up a few images on 6's HUD.

"In other words, we don't have long… I'm all ears." The spartan coolly replied.

Misako displayed a diagram for 6 to follow. "Place your hands on the back of their necks, I'm going to use your shield generator to create a small EMP, kind of like when you lock your armor. They'll get an unpleasant little zap, but it should keep them down if you were thinking otherwise."

The spartan did as she said and felt the two of them shiver as his palms touched their necks, right on top of some strange yin and yang tattoos. "Command, execute." 6 said firmly. A small jolt then coursed through the two girls' bodies. They twitched slightly from the shock but remained unconscious, although their breathing became heavier and their faces blushed as if they had a fever.

"Done. Now let's book it!" Misako chirped.

The spartan hefted the girls on his shoulders and took a running stance. "Already gone." 6 grunted as he sprinted off into the night.

-SEVERAL MINUTES EARLIER-

Karasuba felt the heat of the fires burning around her, as if she had gone to hell. With a slight cough she hauled herself to her feet and braced her face against the intense heat. She grabbed at the handle of her sword with her free hand and cut a path through the flames by slashing through a solid steel beam. The pillar collapsed to the ground and allowed her to sprint across to the wall where the shot had come from. The hole in wall proved to be more than large enough for her to casually walk out of the burning building.

Minaka would pay for that, after all that time spent doing her work for MBI she had finally found another worthy challenge, and perhaps… a worthy choice out of all the worthless apes on the insufferable planet, and the nutty professor had interrupted it. Not only that, but he intentionally set the building on fire while she was inside it. Deactivation be damned, that maniac had almost killed her with that stunt and perhaps deprived her of the only possible ashikabi she'd ever desired. She swore to herself she'd gut him alive if he even suggested that empty weakling Natsuo to be her leash holder now.

If she had not come across the soldier, then perhaps she would have accepted attaching herself to that lowly worm, since he would care nothing for her and it would give her more power to use as she saw fit. But that was an issue for later, now was the time for hunting. From how hot and bothered she was feeling, the spartan had to still be alive and if so, it would be so delicious to bring him to his knees and force him to submit at her feet.

Her thoughts were then interrupted by a call from her employer.

Karasuba retrieved the phone from her pocket and answered. "I assume you have an explanation for what happened." Killing intent laced the words of her unamused voice.

"It was as I said number 4, I wanted to add more fuel to the fire. Besides, I knew you would survive." Minaka replied.

"He was mine; I was so close... I should eviscerate you." She hissed.

"Now, now, there's no need to be so hasty, number 4. You'll have a chance to find him, considering the fact that he escaped with Benitusbasa and Haihane, and destroyed their tracking chips. We simply can't have them revealing what they know to someone who is not 'officially' a part of the sekirei plan yet." The mad genius baited the angry vulture.

"Is that so?" Karasuba said in a deceptively calm tone.

"It is, now go ahead and do what you must to recover them, alive. I realize that may be difficult given your skillset, but I do know you'll enjoy the challenge of the hunt. Consider if you will, the powerful trophy you stand to gain if you are completely successful in your mission." The mad genius buttered her up a bit more.

"Fine." Karasuba replied.

"One last thing I should add, he was heading north before the connection was cut. So, it would be best that you locate and intercept him quickly, before he enters the forbidden zone. Good luck!" Minaka provided his deadliest agent with some useful information before he ended the call.

'He's lucky I already decided to find him myself.' The black sekirei thought to herself as she put the phone away and smiled devilishly at the night sky. "I'll find you Spartan, and you will be mine. Nothing is going to stop me, not even number one if she gets in my way." She chuckled darkly.

-LATER: CITY UNDERGOUND-

Benitsubasa blinked her eyes wearily, a massive headache made itself known as she stirred from her sleep. She slowly became more aware of her situation, and the steel pipes and heavy metal chains that had been bent and looped into makeshift restraints around her arms and legs. She turned her head to the side and saw Haihane restrained in a similar manner, but still fast asleep from her being knocked out earlier. The pinkette attempted to shout to her partner, but her screams never left her mouth since it had been gagged with duct tape. Burning with anger, Benitsubasa thrashed around violently in an effort to free herself and destroy whoever had done this to her. She still had yet to notice the figure standing quietly in the shadows of a nearby corner of the dimly lit maintenance area. For several minutes the pink haired fist fighter struggled to break the meticulously assembled, yet still very crude, restraints that kept her tied down.

Once she ran out of steam, Benitsubasa huffed grumpily in defeat and resigned herself to lay on the floor. It wasn't ideal, but there wasn't much she could do to break free even with her inhuman strength. Though it didn't stop her from letting out a slew of inaudible cuss words that were muffled by the duct tape covering her mouth. A certain advanced cyber being couldn't help giggling at the display from within the confines of her partner's helmet.

Of course, this made 6 roll his eyes.

"Look at her squirming around!" Misako giggled cheekily.

"You and I have a very different taste in humor right now." The spartan grumbled dryly.

Misako snorted at that response. "Typical spartan, always a stick in the mud. Still you're better at being funny than the last one."

6 decided not to dignify that with a response.

"Although I do guess it is time that we got to work." Misako relented in her dark humor.

"Agreed." 6 said as he began to emerge from the shadows.

Benitsubasa froze in place when she heard the heavy foot falls from the future soldier's armor getting louder as the man approached. She rolled onto her back and glared him in eye, or rather where his eyes would be if she could see them. The imposing stature of the 7-foot-tall giant seemed to only have a marginal psychological effect on writhing pink haired girl. He slowly reached down and without any warning, ripped the tape from the girl's mouth.

"Gah, what the fuck?!" Benitsubasa cursed. "Mmph!"

"Quiet." 6 clamped his index finger and thumb over the girl's lips, pinching them shut. "I have questions, and you're going to answer." He ordered to the foul mouthed pinkette. Benitsubassa only narrowed her eyes at her captor, if looks could kill, 6 would be a mashed tin can.

"Mmmph, MMMMPHH MMMPH!" Benitsubasa simply made more inaudible swears.

The spartan returned her anger with indifference, he'd done similar things to this in the past and she wasn't the first uncooperative individual he'd interrogated. But that did not mean he required cruel methods, like those used by ONI's more specialized interrogators, to achieve his desired goal for this discussion. If he got her to stop cursing, eventually she'd run out of steam and 6 could rile her up even more again and again until she would give him answers unintentionally. The spartan was patient enough and he had all night to wait until the fiery girl fist fighter stopped her cursing. Failing that, starvation was another less cruel alternative in his arsenal for getting the girl to play ball and she had a partner who seemed like the more reasonable one.

6 calmly waited until she stopped to take a deep breath. "Finished?" He asked after removing his fingers from her lips.

"Fuck you, when I get out of this-!" She responded rudely. 6 quickly slapped the tape back onto her mouth again.

It was going to be a long night with very little solace for both parties.

-END CHAPTER-


	5. Quid Pro Quo

Halo: Of Wolves and Wagtails

Episode 5: Quid Pro Quo

A/N: I apologize for the delay but I was strapped for ideas on this chapter. Please let me know if I didn't correctly portray certain characters, if so a tip or two on what I did wrong would be very appreciated.

* * *

[Guest: Good to see I haven't disappointed you, and thank you.]

[DaanRoa: Thank you, and sorry but this is 6's story. Who knows though, the Chief 'MIGHT' have a CAMEO eventually, maybe...]

[Slim A Lou Prime: "Perhaps, but a traditional longsword will be hard to come by in Japan."]

[Deadpool: I see... very well then.]

[Ur Boi: Thank you very much, I'm glad you like the story.]

[Lord of Moons: That has neither been officailly confirmed nor denied except for the SMG. There is very little information that I know of that clearly states that it is not possible. For now I will go on with the assumption that since the Assault Rifle fires 7.62 millimeter ammunition it must be the conventional in use today. If you can cite anything that reliably points otherwise, besides for the SMG, I will do my best to rectify that issue within this story.]

[Halo 312: An interesting set of options to be sure. Though I am torn whether or not to keep a limit that has been set at two, not counting little Ku. Matsu and Karasuba though, I am really leaning towards them and possibly even the twins. Homura turning into a woman completely sounds entertaining to write. Minato will still exist. This takes place in late 2019 and I have no clue when Minato arrived town for school besides sometime next year in 2020, at the very least this is a few months give or take before he appears. I have contemplated tossing in Jorge, Jonah, and Roland, but perhaps you are right. If any more do, and this is a major IF, it will most likely be Jorge.]

* * *

-8 HOURS LATER-

6 laid against the back wall of the maintenance area, deep in thought about his situation. The angry girl thrashed back to life an hour ago and had yet to really tire out, determined to simply kept thrashing every so often to the point where it became an irrational habit. In stark contrast to the pinkette, the ashen haired girl who'd barely regained consciousness a few minutes earlier kept silent despite what was happening to her. 6 had not yet asked her any questions since he felt it best not do so for the time being. As the hours slowly passed by, the room itself took on an eerie grave-like silence. This quiet time did serve to provide 6 with ample opportunity to assess the state of affairs in which he found himself. Misako kept track of the time and would pester the spartan occasionally out of boredom since he had proven to temporarily be lacking in the way of conversation.

If he was being honest with himself, the entire situation had become a tale of insanity. Fate had been especially cruel to him in this case, he was an elite super soldier trapped alone in the past without a cause or an army that had yet to even exist. He could not help but acknowledge the twisted reality that surrounded him and the entire city in a vice grip. If he were to retreat and flee into hiding what would it accomplish? Nothing could be gained from escaping and he never had any naive intention on meddling in the past, even when he was a little boy. He abandoned that line of thought in order to avoid temptation, if was going to protect the future of mankind then it meant he could barely interfere in the past at all.

The spartan felt his thoughts drift away from the present after becoming accustomed to the silence. A mere few days ago he had barely arrived on the mightiest fortress world mankind had established, and then it was gone... erased by the Covenant. Before that he had spilled so much blood for humanity, both alongside his adoptive brothers and sisters on the rare occasion, and mostly by himself in the shadows. 6 briefly glanced once again at the two girls, and the way they complimented each other reminded him all too well of some of his more enthusiastic compatriots, two of them to be exact. He'd rarely seen either of the duo since he'd been pulled from beta company like they were and like Noble team they'd always be something he'd never forget. The spartan shook his head sardonically at that comparison, Jonah and Roland were unforgettable for a different reason. But he supposed that in the end they were all spartans who'd fought the same war for survival and they'd either disappeared or died, now he was one of the remaining few.

His deep thoughts of reflection were soon interrupted by his companion who had decided to be especially loud this time with her complaints.

"Hey big guy, I'm talking to you! Why are you ghosting me with that edgy thousand-yard stare?" Misako grilled her partner.

"Let me think, and don't call me edgy." 6 replied curtly.

"You've spent hours thinking lazy bones, get up and do something! Interrogate the other one, she woke up a while ago and Pinky isn't going to say a word unless she's cussing at you!" The AI exclaimed out of frustration.

"She's too dead to the world to talk, there's no incentive for her to say a word to me." 6 remained unmoved by his partner's impatience.

Misako wrinkled her digital brow in annoyance. "I get that you don't want to be cruel, even though they did try to kill us. But didn't your instructors teach you to get things done?"

"I'm waiting." The spartan said calmly.

"For what?!" Misako huffed impatiently.

*Gurgle* The brief silence was broken by two loud signals of opportunity on the far side of the room.

"That." 6 replied in a smug tone.

A skeptical Misako crossed her arms. "For them to get hungry? That's why you waited all that time?"

6 nodded and stood up from the concrete floor. "Yes, that is the plan. If they talk, they can eat. It's that simple."

"Why do I even bother?" The AI groaned.

"Ye of little faith." 6 chuckled as he walked over to the two girls.

"Where did ya pick that one up? I always assumed lower ranked military types were low brow, even the spartans." Misako asked with mild curiosity.

"Heard it from tv when I was a kid." The spartan shrugged.

She narrowed her eyes, clearly unsatisfied with her partner's words, but she internally decided it was best not to drag that conversation out. "By the way, those two are looking a little on the sick side. My biometric scan of them indicates they have a high fever and elevated heartrate. Just letting you know." Misako reported to the spartan.

The pink haired girl had finally given up and resigned to glaring daggers at her captor. She watched as the man or iron talked to himself, appearing to either talking over a radio or simply just insane, not that it mattered to her. She glanced at her friend and noticed how Haihane was blushing more as the mystery man approached. Benitsubasa then began to take account of her own bodily function that was unique to their species, and it served both rile her up even more and arouse her at the same time. She kneaded her thighs against each other as the heat permeated her nether regions. For the pink haired sekirei it was a struggle for her raging mind to combat her own baser instincts of red-hot lust.

Haihane on the other hand, was dealing with her own troubles in a slightly different manner. She looked into the silver mirror of the soldier's visor and cringed as the man stood above her, the intimidating features of the suit piercing her attempt to resist his strange charm. She was reacting to the iron giant standing in front of her, and she knew it. Recent memories of the beatdown played back in her mind while she gazed at her reflection in the mirror. It wasn't exactly pleasant, but it hadn't been overtly painful either when she lost to the mysterious soldier. As something slightly more than a novice in combat she understood how to fight since Karasuba had trained her somewhat and she was made for it, the pain told her the hit she's taken were meant to disable, not kill.

"Are you hungry?" 6 asked the ashen girl. "Nod your head if you agree." He commanded.

Haihane did as she was told and bowed her head.

"Good. I have questions for you that your teammate refused to answer. The tape will be removed from your mouth if you choose to comply. If you want to eat, I suggest that you do not attempt to dodge my questions or outright refuse my answers without sufficient believable reason to do so like your companion. And my patience for rude behavior is beginning to wear thin." 6 instructed the sekirei on what he wanted and her means to receiving a reward for sufficient compliance with his demands. His voice, despite its cold nature, seemed to have a warmth to it that she could not help submitting to.

Haihane nodded and a contented look appeared on her facial features as the spartan reached his bear paw of a hand towards her face. The blue sekirei flinched in pain from the rapid peeling of the tape in question. "Mmph, that feels a bit better." She said in a relaxed tone.

"I trust that you're feeling cooperative." The spartan centered his visor on the girl's face, he scrutinized her features for any visible weakness.

"Not like I have much choice, do I?" The girl replied in a melancholy tone.

"You don't." 6 stated flatly.

"I was being sarcastic." Haihane threw him a wry look.

"And I'm serious." 6 shot back in his cool tone.

"Fair enough big guy, take it easy. So, what do you want to know so badly?" Haihane relented and complied with his demand.

"First, Your name and occupation." 6 ordered.

"Heh, I'm Haihane, sekirei number 104 of the disciplinary squad and right next to me is my pal number 105 Benitsubasa. She and I have yet to get our own ashikabi, the guy we were picked to have isn't exactly ideal so we've been given time to pick one we like. If we don't find one, we're stuck with someone who will never care about us, we'd just be living pieces of meat." The sekirei explained, a sober attitude laced her words. Her explanation presented 6 with another interesting mystery, but before he could broach his next question to the ash haired beauty, Benitsubasa grunted her displeasure.

"Hmph, mmph mmph mmmph, mmph!" Benitsubasa grunted, her protests were muffled by the duct tape covering her mouth.

Haihane seemed to understand her partner's expressions and turned her head to face the pinkette. "I know Red, but I had time to think about it. Would you rather be stuck with Natsuo?" She said presented her friend with the ultimatum she dreaded so much.

"…." The red sekirei rolled her eyes and sighed silently in defeat.

Taking note of her partner's silence, Haihane smirked. "Yeah, I thought so."

"We're getting off track, now please explain to me what an ashikabi is." 6 asked in his politest tone.

"I'd really like to show you instead… just give me a little kiss and I-" Haihane seductively attempted to lure in the spartan.

"No, that won't be necessary." 6 outright refused her request.

"Aw don't be like that; I shouldn't tell you until you do. It's not that hard to give me what I want, call it a fair trade. It's a very simple price to pay for what you want." Haihane tried to coax her captor to give into his desires.

6 shook his head in refusal. "Let's move on to something else… you appear to be human-"

"I'm not a super-soldier and there are one hundred and eight of us, if that's what you're wondering. I have watched a little sci-fi just so you know." Haihane interrupted the man.

"Remember what I told you about cooperation." The spartan chided her.

"I know what you said, but we sekirei can't share unless we're telling our ashikabi, otherwise we risk being deactivated. For us that means a coma-like death, it's a constant knife to neck." Haihane lamented.

"So, you're doing this under duress…" 6 paused for a moment of thought. "that makes some things much clearer."

Haihane nodded. "Pretty much, I won't lie that I don't enjoy the job a little bit to stay sane. On the other hand, our leader Karasuba takes it to another level and the fact that you're still alive, in one piece, says quite a lot. By the way, did you actually-?"

"No, I didn't, and I have no intention on encountering her again unless it's on my terms." 6 immediately put that question to rest.

"Either she overpowered you or you let her live, I'm guessing the former." The blue sekirei surmised.

"That's irrelevant. I've heard enough for now." 6 reached to his hip and opened the hardcase, he removed a protein bar that he'd been saving for a few days from a ration pack. He peeled open the wrapper, revealing the chocolate coated snack bar. "As promised, here you go." 6 held up the bar to her face and the sekirei reluctantly took a bite to satisfy her hunger.

It was not the most delicious thing she'd ever tasted, but the military protein bar was better than starvation. Of course, she could eat much more due to her extremely high metabolism, though what mattered was she at least had the tiniest amount of food to nourish herself. Benitsubasa couldn't help feeling envious at the sight of her friend enjoying the small amount of food, her growling stomach could certainly attest to that. Haihane looked down on her friend with a smug grin.

'Laugh it up, brown nose.' Benitsubasa angrily thought to herself while glaring daggers at her partner.

"What do you know about Hiroto Minaka?" 6 turned around and asked the ash haired girl. He then decided to take off the tape over Benitsubasa's mouth, ripping it clean off of her lips which resulted in a pained yelp from the girl. Benitsubasa opened her mouth to curse again but a loud cracking of 6's knuckles forced her to be silent. What didn't help her case was the fact that she was reacting to him as well.

"He's technically our boss, and the one who runs this entire city." Haihane replied.

"What else? Someone in your position is bound to know more secrets, so tell me is there anything he keeps secure, vaults, access codes, Weapons of Mass Destruction?" The spartan grilled his captive for more information on the mad scientist/dictator. "In short, what does he have to hide?" He clenched his feet to add for intimidation factor.

"Well, he was the one who found us. He used the first single digits to decimate a Coalition force to protect his prize." Haihane explained. "They'd qualify as Weapons of Mass Destruction in their own right."

"That other woman I fought, Karasuba, she's one of the first of you, isn't she? That would explain her combat prowess when compared to yours." 6 crossed his arms in thought.

"She slaughtered entire infantry groups and tank crews by herself." Haihane said casually.

"Makes sense." 6 nodded.

"I think she would have killed you quicker if she wasn't after you for other reasons." Benitsubasa chimed in bitterly. The spartan turned his gaze down to the tied up pinkette, which in her wincing slightly under his stare.

6 turned his attention back to the ash haired girl. "I'd say we fought on almost equal terms, but what are the other reasons?"

Haihane shrugged her shoulders. "With her, either she wants you to be her Ashikabi, …or Minaka wants you for your armor and tech… I don't know which for sure, but I can tell you there are some Sekirei who are almost as lethal as her."

"We'll see about that." The spartan coolly replied. "Those other sekirei, who are they?"

"The ones you might worry about have control over the elements, they're usually single digits like Karasuba." Haihane answered.

"Go on." 6 encouraged her to elaborate further on the situation.

"One controls air currents, she was with the first group and brought down jets and helicopters in a single motion. Another one controls Ice, but she's not one to talk much from what I heard. I could go on but I think you get the idea." The blue sekirei told him.

6 nodded in understanding. "There is a pattern there, yes. I remember you said you wanted me to wing you, and you mentioned it again when you spoke of Karasuba..."

"Well, we are not much without an ashikabi after all. And I am reacting to you, I know Benitsubasa is too..." She told her prospective ashikabi, or at least she hoped he would be.

"Speak for yourself damn it!" Beni screeched.

6 ignored the pink girl and rolled his eyes underneath his visor. "Not in Karasuba's case, though from what you're implying an Ashikabi can drastically augment the power of a sekirei."

"True enough, and...despite how dangerous she is now, Karasuba currently doesn't have an Ashikabi. If she does get one... well..." Haihane trailed off.

"Then I have to deal with her before she finds one." 6 hummed.

"Oh she found one alright, you. If I knowing her as well as I think, she'll rip the city apart to find you. It will take divine intervention to keep her from getting what she wants." Haihane warned the spartan.

"I have other plans." 6 disregarded her words with a wave of his hand. He decided to switch things and make small talk to ease any tension. "It's pleasant to see that you're being very cooperative with me regarding information, other times have been much more difficult. Your friend is an example of that." He remarked coolly.

"Oh, up yours tin-head!" Benitsubasa rallied her courage and delivered an outburst of anger.

"I hope your plans are to wing Karasuba. Otherwise, if I were you, I'd want to be as far away as physically possible when she tracks you down." Haihane suggested.

"Doesn't matter, I'll be one step ahead. Now that brings to what I'm going to do with you and your colleague. It seems your usefulness to me has come to an end." 6 crossed his arms.

"Hey if you wing me and red, we can be useful! Please!" Haihane pleaded with her captor, as degrading as it was.

"Relax, I don't prefer cruelty, so I'm going to let you two go. But let me be clear, don't mistake this mercy for weakness." He pointed a finger at the both of them to emphasize his point. Haihane relaxed slightly and her expression changed to one of disappointment to be rejected by a man who held the power to set her free, Benitsubasa shared the feeling.

"You're letting them go?! That's not only stupid, it's flat out insane!" Misako shouted at her partner from within the helmet.

"Your letting us go? We will be sent after you again, ya know, that right?" Haihane narrowed her eyes.

"Hmph, what makes either of you think I'll let you find me again? Now that I know what to avoid, we aren't likely to cross paths again, at least not for a long time." 6 chuckled at the girl's empty threat.

"Good luck with that! Minaka has eyes EVERYWHERE! There's barely an inch of this city he's not spying on!" Benitsubasa shouted at 6, clearly overexaggerating the capabilities of her employer.

"You'd be surprised how easy it is to strike those eyes blind." The spartan shot back in a monotone voice.

"Are you sure about that, the professor may be crazy but he has some of the most advanced tech on the planet." Haihane interjected.

"Then why was he so interested in my ship?" 6 retorted to the ash haired sekirei, both girls merely shrugged in response. The spartan stood up and stretched himself out. "Now, I believe our time together has come to an end. Benitsubasa, Haihane, I won't be 'winging' either of you, whatever it means.''

"It means kissing, you jackass!" Benitsubasa snarled angrily.

"Or other things…" Haihane chuckled with a perverted grin.

"Don't be a damn pervert, Haihane!" Benitsubasa snapped at her friend.

"What? You know we both want him as our ashikabi and getting more intimate with him will have the same result." Haihane teased the blushing pinkette.

Benitsubasa did a spit take at the notion of having feelings for the spartan. "Urk! Don't make me laugh! I'd rather get butchered by Karasuba than be stuck with this iron prick!" She screeched, but her cheeks and sweat betrayed her real feelings.

"Then it's either him or Natsuo." Haihane stated flatly.

"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, ANYONE BUT NATSUO!" Benitsubasa cried out in desperation.

"Then stop trying to piss this one off. We need him and you know it." Haihane soothed her partner.

"He said he wouldn't do it anyway!" The pinkette pouted.

The blue sekirei rolled her eyes. "See what I have to deal with?" Haihane said in a frustrated tone as she turned her head to the spartan.

"FUCK YOU!" Benitsubasa hissed.

"Oh, I see." 6 grunted calmly. Less than a second later he had punched Haihane just hard enough to knock her unconscious. He immediately turned his head to the pinkette, and Benitsubasa couldn't help a need to quiver erratically. Whether that response was out of arousal from her reaction, anger, or fear, she could not say. "Goodnight." The spartan said calmly as he reared back his fist.

"Not the face!" Benitsubasa shouted.

*SMACK*

"Sweet dreams, miss pinky." Misako smugly chirped. "So, 6, care to fill me in on the next part of the plan? You are the master ONI assassin after all."

"We're going to find somewhere to dump these two, and from that point our next move will be to establish a safehouse." 6 scooped up the two unconscious girls.

"There should be a suitable dumpster around the exit I've selected for us, we should come up in an alleyway just outside the northern sector of the city." Misako replied with a probability counter briefly showing on 6's HUD.

"Perfect." 6 hummed confidently. The spartan made his way out of the maintenance area and opened the emergency door that led back into the vast underground flood tunnels.

-SEVERAL MINUTES LATER-

His captives hung over his shoulders, completely unconscious from their recent knockout. Benitsubasa drooled profusely as she hung from her perch, her blushing face remained oddly peaceful in contrast to the reality of her current situation. Haihane on the other hand snored quietly in the Spartan's embrace, the sound resembled that of a small bird's chirp.

"Back in the Tunnels again." Misako sighed, obviously bored by the empty darkness that stretched on for miles.

"For now, it's less risky than moving on the street, just be happy it's not the sewers." 6 said calmly as he slowly walked through the pitch-black flood tunnels.

"Unless Minaka decides to open the flood control gates." The pessimistic AI crossed her avatar's arms.

6 rolled his eyes at her and decided to try calming his digital partner. "I don't believe he has that much control of the city yet, granted it does stand to reason he will soon all things considered."

"Oh great, well that's another scary thought." Misako groaned.

"Then don't think about it. You know we have more important problems right now." 6 grumbled in a slightly annoyed tone. Where was the confidence she'd demonstrated before, when they met? He wanted to shake his head at that, the fact that she was so easily rattled by what Minaka did… it spoke volumes to him.

"If you say so caveman." The AI replied, not wanting an argument with the spartan. "By the way, does this remind you of anything?" She asked innocently.

That simple question gave him a chance to calm her down, at least it would ease the weight on his own mind to hear less complaining from her. "Depends on what you mean." 6 grunted his response.

"Well there's no genocidal aliens here, but we are being hunted by that psycho with a sword and super powers. She's vaguely human at the very least, but even that's stretching it." Misako said with a forced, nervous chuckle. That was putting it mildly.

"Being down here does somewhat remind me of the battle for New Alexandria among other things." 6 said.

"Oh really? Care to share?" She prodded him like a child petting an old dog too strongly. He really missed the confident professionalism.

"The rest of my experiences mostly involve the insurrection though, and many of those experiences are things I'm not proud of, hence my… dislike… for ONI and that is putting it mildly." 6 explained in an irritated tone of voice, not wanting to be reminded of the human blood on his hands. Just because he was good at his job with ONI, didn't mean he liked it. He was subtly telling her to drop it.

"Sounds...fun, right? The tunnels under New Alexandria, I mean." Misako would bite her lip if she still could. The AI knew she'd touched a nerve again for the spartan, her voice analytics process confirmed it. She got the hint that it was best for her not push any further right now.

"It was packed with overzealous suicide grunts." The spartan bluntly replied.

"Ah, the methane breathing meat shields of the Covenant. I almost feel bad about them...almost." Misako said in an attempt to steer the conversation in a different direction.

"Hmph, I'm just glad I managed to save some lives that day." 6 shrugged calmly as he recalled the innocent lives he'd saved.

Misako nodded coolly in agreement with her partner, a digital sigh of relief passed through her code. "Yeah, those transports you helped out managed to get to orbit and jump into slip-space. Though I can't say the same for every other emergency evac site on the planet." She brought up the countless deceased civilians that perished during the invasion. That sent up a flag with 6, to him ONI AI units depending their post usually had far less interest in civilian deaths.

"How did you know about that? I didn't think ONI was busy caring about non-VIPs." 6 raised an eyebrow at his digital partner.

"Last Minute transmissions from fleeing escape vessels, that and a Few VIP's...didn't make it off world. Especially when you consider how you found me, I did see the helmet feed logs on your camera, or I should say my old transporter's helmet." She responded solemnly. "I'm not heartless like most ONI personnel, or that skull jerk who just loved threatening me every time we had the displeasure of being on the same network."

6 nodded. "I see. The one positive is that the Pillar of Autumn made it into space with its cargo."

"Isn't that the ship assigned to Captain Keyes? He's a legend, even my handlers at ONI talked about him every once in a while." Misako grinned at the mention of the well-known war hero. "He'll really give them hell."

"You can bet on that." 6 smirked under his helmet.

The spartan stopped walking and stood in front of a concrete ladder that led back to the surface he began a short climb up to the street level. Just over two minutes later, the spartan reached the manhole cover and prepared to pop open the cover.

-TOKYO: CITY STREETS-

"Hold on a moment." Misako used the motion tracking system to scan for nearby movement. "The surface should be clear for you pop the manhole cover." She told the spartan, and he hoisted the cover up and out of his way. 6 then gently threw both girls out of the tunnel and onto the pavement. "Given what I know, I shouldn't be surprised that you can carry those two so easily as you do."

"Are you?" 6 asked rhetorically, a slight bit of sarcasm was prevalent is his voice.

"I won't dignify that with a response." Misako huffed in annoyance.

"You just did." He verbally jabbed the AI for being snippy at him.

Her avatar merely stared at him with a digital tick mark on her forehead before sticking her nose in the air and crossing her arms with childish huff. Sweet silence once again for the spartan, a part of him knew the silent treatment would get old soon enough, but a few minutes of peace and quiet was all he wanted right now. He'd been talking long enough to both her and the two girls he'd interrogated, and his patience with the childish yet pessimistic program had been strained enough. Though he would admit to himself that he slightly enjoyed how her demeanor took a more positive turn near the end of their long conversation. Without another word, 6 walked over to the still unconscious women and picked them up once more, hopefully for what should be the last time for quite some time.

6 turned his view toward the sky, his polarized visor providing protection from the intense light of the sun. The bright light in the sky seemed quite welcoming to him, a nice change from the dark depths of the city underground.

As far as he knew from what Misako had told him, they were within walking distance of the northern city sector and now that they were above ground a certain mega-corporation would be keen on reacquiring him. A thought that lingered at the back of his mind was the violent psychopath he'd dealt with previously, given her ferocity and drive from what he observed she'd definitely be on the hunt. He understood the risk of being on the surface but remaining in the city underground forever was not an option, it was possible that workers would discover him eventually, or perhaps water would flood the tunnels at some point. Either way, the entire city was a hostile environment for the time being.

With a shrug of his shoulders at the volume of tactical issues to rectify, the spartan proceeded towards the street. His motion tracker was glowing with contacts from the Japanese civilians living their daily lives, completely unaware of the armor-clad giant that hid among them. What caught his eye though was a group of young-adult civilians dressed in odd clothing, certainly not average civilian attire. Various styles were mixed throughout the group of people, some of them wore what he assumed to be gothic attire some of them even carried a strange, yet obviously fake scythe. Other members of the group were dressed in various colorful martial arts uniforms. A few of the 'martial artists' were even sporting false blonde hair that stood up straight in an odd fashion. Judging from the quality of the civilians' odd attire, 6 decided to take a calculated risk and approached the street. Hopefully his armor would actually serve as a disguise of sorts if oddities such as that were a common sight, otherwise the only issue that made him stand out would be his height and sheer size.

"According to my database, that is called "Cosplay". It was very popular in the early 21st Century." Misako piped up, breaking the silence that 6 had enjoyed.

"Oh, you don't say." 6 replied unenthusiastically. His attitude slightly changed a moment later as to 6's surprise, there was another group he'd missed that was dressed in more 'futuristic' attire. Their clothing resembled strange forms of armor and mock combat gear of differing styles. The group of civilians were quick to spot the seven-foot-tall sailor though, and suffice it to say the group was certainly more than interested in the stranger.

"We Could use this to our Advantage." Misako chirped.

"Obviously." 6 grunted. He received a degree of scrutiny and even praise from them as he strolled through, but some of them did stare at him and slowly backed away in caution.

The females of the group gawked at the size of the apparently male giant that strode right by them, a mix of shock and awe adorned their blushing faces. The men of the group had a different reaction though, some backed away slightly out of fear, it was plain to most of them that they were staring at a walking tank of a man, others were in awe at just how much 6 must've worked out to be so muscular. Any idiot who would decide to pick a fight with him would clearly have a death-wish. The gawking civilians watched as he calmly walked away from them, and the spartan had to admit he enjoyed their reactions.

6 continued his stroll down the street in broad daylight, and so far, the streets seemed to be peaceful enough. Several long minutes went by in relative peace for the spartan, he had no doubt that somehow, he was being watched if his informants were to be believed. If that was true, then Karasuba wasn't far behind. He understood that he had to move out, but where could he go? It was not as if a new temporary home would magically appear in front of him.

Suddenly a red hostile blip appeared on the edge of his motion tracker and an ice cold shiver ran down the space warrior's nearly unbreakable spine. In the span of a split second he'd sidestepped to his right and countered his opponent's attack with a perfectly executed roundhouse punch. The unidentified hostile contact flew backwards into a concrete wall, which blew a human sized hole straight through it. The spartan took up his combat stance for hand to hand combat to deal with his unwanted company. A second later a gloved hand reached out of the rubble in the same fashion as the vengeful undead rising from the grave. In a frightening display of power the hand clenched into a fist and less than a second later the pile of rocks burst into bits of pebbles and dust.

A large cloud of dust blanketed the surrounding area and providing the perfect cover for a hasty retreat, 6 took that as his cue to run. The spartan sprinted hard in an effort to escape his attacker for the time being. A loud whoosh of air behind him signaled his enemy's recovery and resuming of the pursuit. A quick glance behind him revealed the attacker to be none other than Karasuba herself, clearly intent on catching the spartan for one reason or another. 6 slid to his right and rounded a corner, charging through a back alleyway with the bloodthirsty killer hot on his heels. He drew his pistol and fired sever shots behind him in an attempt to throw her off balance. Unsurprisingly, she deflected the rounds with extremely precise swings of her sword and several louds pings rang out as the bullets ricocheted off of the razor-sharp blade. Misako didn't waste time distracting her partner with words, instead she focused her processing power on directing 6 with tactical options for his escape. Pointed him left and the warfighter bolted to his left just as Karasuba threw another powerful slash his way. The spartan leapt over a car as he darted across the street and rolled for a few feet before taking off once more in a swift sprint.

Civilians gawked in awe at the at the amazing chase as the hulking super soldier rushed though the neighborhood with an acrobatic killer on his tail. 6 grabbed hold of a street lamp and used his momentum swing right and skid under a passing cargo truck. Searing hot sparks flew off the Spartan's armor as he slid to his feet and to the side again, to avoid another quick slash from Karasuba.

The black sekirei leapt from building to building while her prey scurried away below her. Her robe blew in the air like a pair of grey of terrifying bat wings as she struck downward at the deceptively nimble man of steel. She ran after him at her full speed to catch up with him, not even caring a bit for innocents that would no doubt be caught in the middle of the chase. The lucky ones were simply pushed out of the way as the two superhuman fighters sped through, A few others nearly had a limb chopped off by the psycho as she pursued her target. 6 found himself at a three-way street swapped his pistol for the assault rifle just before he leapt over a wooden fence and into a civilian's front yard. The high-tech warrior jumped up to the roof and felt his heart pound from the creaking of the wood as it creak in pain under his half-ton weight. Nonetheless, 6 poured on the speed again and dashed over the roof of the home. Karasuba ran up the wall and landed on her feet with a somersault. She made a swift dash towards the fleeing spartan as he closed in on the edge of the roof.

Six jumped off of the roof and flipped forward just as Karausba closed in on him. She was met with a burst of assault rifle fire, a single bullet managed to graze her arm, while another whizzed by her head. Time slowed for the black sekirei in that brief moment as death itself nearly took her into its embrace. Her prey truly was giving her a deadly run for her money and the elegant killer could only grin in satisfaction despite the pain from the bullet wound, she'd chosen her prey well. The spartan landed on the ground with a loud thud, leaving behind a crater under his feet. He briefly looked up at the roof in reaction to check his surroundings and immediately regretted it as Karasuba flew down to him. He blade nicked the side of his left shoulder plate as he dodged her. She grinned at the spartan in bloodlust before attempting to cut him in half again. The spartan avoided the slash and turned to run again, his augmented heart nearly beating out of his chest with adrenaline coursing through his veins. He rapidly bashed his way through the fence and a shower of splinters erupted from the spartan's position as he rammed the through to another alley behind the home. No concerns were carried for the property he destroyed as he fought to escape from the sekirei that refused to cease her chase.

"Thermal says there's no one behind the wall ahead, shoot it out!" Misako shouted at her partner. 6 obliged the action and fired an entire magazine worth of rile ammunition into the wall in front of him. He cocked his shoulder forward and plowed through the weakened wall, straight into the empty home. The hall stretched for a few feet and ended with another room straight ahead of the fleeing spartan. Without any hesitation 6 kicked in the door and smashed the window at the opposite end of the room. He tumbled across the grass of the back yard for a moment and found himself standing in front of a concrete wall with a mighty tree right beside it. He spun back around to catch Karasuba taking another swing at him. 6 barely ducked under the blade and dropped to the floor he managed to barely avoid another quick stab that was aimed at his shoulder. The attack was clearly intended to pin him to ground and incapacitate him for capture. 6 rolled to the side and darted away from his opponent before turning to face her once more with his assault rifle aimed at the woman's chest.

"There's no point in running, I've caught you…. 6-kun." Karasuba purred to the super soldier.

6 clutched his rifle tightly in his hands. "I'm not done yet." The spartan growled defiantly. "And I won't be holding back this time…"

"I suppose you're right, we're just getting started…." The black sekirei locked her eyes onto the reflective visor.

A brief silence fell over the backyard arena as the two warriors stared down one another, waiting for either combatant to move and present an opening. Then within the span of a split second both combatants rushed each other, leaving behind blurred after images in their burst of speed. Little did either of the two combatants know, they were being watched closely by the residents of the home that 6 had barreled through. One of them in particular had decided to watch the brawl that was about erupt between both parties, punishment for the destructive intrusion could wait.

-END CHAPTER-


	6. Bird in the hand

Halo: Of Wolves and Wagtails

Episode 6: A bird in the hand

A/N: Sorry this took so long, I wanted to try to and make it as good as I could. As always, if I messed something up with portraying any characters, let me know. I hope all of you are ok with the decision I'm going to make in this episode.

Posted on 10/24/2019

* * *

[Slim A Lou Prime: Indeed.]

[Frank: That remains to be seen in 6's case.]

[Guest: I see what you mean dude.]

[Evowizard25: Yes, he was playing it safe, it is always smart to be cautious in the face of the unknown. Thank you, I do my best when it comes to evening the playing field of battle. That would be totally awesome, the combination of the chemicals in 6's blood combined with the genes of a sekirei sounds cool. As for Minato, I'm not entirely sure yet. We'll see what happens.]

[Halo312: Hello to you too. To be honest, the thought has crossed my mind on more than one occasion. As for Seo and the twins, we'll see about that. Thank you, the epic battle concludes today!]

[Manofmuffins: Thanks, and I've been considering it, dude. It's been mentioned to me before and I am really tempted to do it. It'd remind me of a Bioshock Big Daddy and a Little Sister.]

* * *

6 continuously evaded strikes from Karasuba and managed to land a hit on her with a swift counter strike to her lower jaw. With the Black Sekirei briefly stunned, he followed up his hit with an axe kick to the chest that knocked the wind out of his opponent. All the raw force from 6's attack sent her spiraling backwards at the wall of the building. Karasuba recovered and stabbed her sword into the ground to aid in stopping her backslide.

The black sekirei rushed at 6, weaving through a hail of bullets as they whizzed by her head. 6 slid to right just as she closed in for the kill and continued to discharge the weapon for the off chance that he could put his enemy down. The assault rifle made an audible click and ceased to fire its 7.62 ammunition. 6 cursed through his teeth as Karasuba whirled around and threw a backslash at the armored super solider. A relentless flurry of strikes rained down in the spartan from his deadly opponent. 6 backpedaled to avoid being eviscerated by Karasuba, who was clearly enjoying the conflict between herself and the man she was testing. The longer 6 continued to stay alive the more she began to feel that perhaps he was actually worthy of her.

The spartan turned and sprinted towards the tree and ran up the side, snapping a sturdy branch from the tree as he leapt off. He aimed the makeshift bludgeon at his opponent as he dropped to the ground. A loud slam accompanied the crater that 6 had pounded into the ground. He tilted his helmet up and rushed at Karasuba to counter her blitz with his own. The spartan swung his new beating stick at the battle thirsty succubus, forcing her to back away rapidly. Crater after crater formed in the ground from 6's constant swings that often missed their mark. Despite the course of the battle Karasuba was actually smiling at what was happening, she was an unstoppable force and once again she'd found an immovable object. He was far more brutal in his tactics than Yume, but it was nonetheless an exhilarating reminder of times long since passed.

Karasuba took a deep breath to calm herself as 6 jabbed the branch at her head, the strike missed by less than an inch. The murderous sekirei turned her head to the side as the stick passed right in front of her face. As the stick was pulled back, she whipped her head aside again and caught a scratch on her cheek from the rough bark of the stick. A swift downward strike followed the jab and Karasuba gasped at the pain of receiving a large crack in one of her shoulder bones. In that very instant the mixture of gravity and brute force threatened to force her to the ground. 'He really isn't holding back…' She thought to herself as her bones creaked from the impact. Karasuba flopped to the ground with a loud thud, she clenched her mouth shut as a reaction to the severe pain.

The spartan did not halt his assault and moved to smash her spine in half with the broken tree branch. Karasuba rolled to the side and sprang up to regain her footing and go on the offensive. Her sword whipped through the air towards 6's torso, and the spartan was unable to back off in time, which allowed it to carve through the energy shield. Karasuba's attack left behind a huge gash across the titanium ODST torso-plate. Despite the constant onslaught of slashes, 6 knew he had to keep his cool and continued to backpedal away from the sekirei. With the energy shield down, the razor-sharp blade marred up the battle-weathered armor even more with each passing second that the fight dragged on for.

6 watched his opponent carefully while he avoided being cut to ribbons by the razor sharp nodachi blade. Her attacks were precise yet vicious, to him it spoke volumes about her personality. That was something he had come to understand about fighting during his initial training as a spartan: the more that he'd fight someone, the more the battle revealed who they are through their style of combat. Mendez taught them all how to fight in hand to hand combat the same way, but everyone in his company had put their emotions into every strike they made. Even ruthless efficiency had to had some emotion behind it when it came to spartan three personnel, Emile had made that abundantly clear to him before he died.

Normally Karasuba would have no trouble mowing down humans, she had done so in the past and thoroughly enjoyed it. But this one irritatingly attractive soldier was not one to fall prey against her methods of killing so easily. She would have to rely on a victory by a thousand cuts at the rate she was going and that would take quite some time to be successful, but it was merely a simple annoyance to her. All she had to do was force him to make a mistake, a single slip up in his defense and he would be ripe for defeat.

Blurs of hits and blocks darted across the backyard battlefield seemingly at random with every clash between the two fighters. More of the serene backyard was demolished with reckless abandon while 6 and Karasuba battled it out for supremacy. Shocked residents of the inn watched the battle rage on between the nearly unstoppable killing machines. Only one of the residents remained almost completely calm on the surface throughout the entire ordeal, the landlady. Her eyes darted from side to while she sat down in a meditative position to monitor the fight. She could not deny to herself that it was mildly entertaining to watch the battle hungry psychopath square-off with the mysterious warrior in a very well-matched fight. It was almost like she was watching two people caught in a gracefully violent tango dance of sorts, a beautiful display of destruction and love.

Nervous hearts pounded in the chests of the inn's residents out of anticipation for the outcome of the mythic fight. A buxom brunette on the upper floor peeked over a window sill to view the battlefield below. She carefully avoided peeking too far over the wall and risking being spotted by the vicious silver-haired killer. As much as she enjoyed watching the legendary Karasuba herself take a serious beating, it was still terrifying to be within a short distance of the infamous MBI butcher. She smiled a bit when she witnessed the armored stranger land a punch to Karasuba's cheek. The heavy blow sent the sekirei crashing through the backyard fence and the brunette winced at how painful that must've been.

A room over from the brunette, was a handsome, white-haired young man(?) with brown eyes. The young man in question couldn't believe his eyes when it came to the clash between Karasuba and the stranger. He watched the stranger match Karasuba's own ferocity with a brutal style of fighting that reminded him of some particularly tough fist-type sekirei. But then again, the brawl between them and the high-tech armor the stranger wore, showed him that whoever the stranger might be, they clearly aren't a sekirei. He then focused his attention directly on Karasuba, right away he could tell that she was in the middle of reacting to the stranger. What gave it away to him was the visible blush that dusted her smooth cheeks whenever she and the stranger paused their fight.

For a short moment of time, the fight halted and an atmosphere of ambient silence surrounded the two fighters. Each of them was breathing heavily from the intensity of the fighting they had performed. Their audience practically ate up the thick tension of the of moment of silence as both fighters circled each other like snarling wolves. From a certain viewer's perspective, this was battle was one between two masters of all out combat, even the slightest opening could determine the outcome of the entire duel.

"You've got my respect when it comes to your strength." Karasuba said in a strangely calm tone. "I haven't had a good fight like this in years."

"Same to you, Karasuba." 6 replied coolly. "But it looks like we're evenly matched. Unless you're willing to walk away, this can only end with one of us dead."

"I wouldn't go that far… I'd say we're just getting started!" The black sekirei grinned when her opponent slid on a crack in the concrete and his guard dropped for a brief moment.

In that split second her opponent tensed at that fault and mentally braced for what was about to happen next. She pounced forward, straight through the hole that opened in 6's defense, right over the makeshift branch staff. A punishing slice across the front of 6's armor forced the soldier to step back again in reaction. Karasuba smirked, she was getting the upper hand in the fight now, her prey wouldn't last much longer. Her prey reacted and countered by throwing a punch at her throat, but she managed a quick dodge and backslash counter that threw the spartan to the ground. Karasuba was swift in separating 6 from his staff, not wasting a valuable second of time she sliced the beating stick to bits.

Despite the loss of his melee weapon, 6 pushed up to his feet and sprinted forward to put some distance between him and his enemy. With some breathing room secured for him to retaliate, he spun around to face his opponent once more. He unholstered the shotgun and pulled the trigger, a storm of red-hot pellets erupted from the barrel in Karasuba's general direction. Time slowed to a crawl as she tried to avoid the spread of lethal buckshot that hurtled towards her, carefully twisting her body to do so. Try as she might to dodge the discharge several pellets grazed her slim figure, each one taking a significant chunk of flesh in their wake. Even with the strong pain tolerance Karasuba had been gifted with due to her nature as one of the mightiest sekirei it was excruciatingly painful to get shredded by simple gunfire.

Karasuba landed in a somewhat graceful position as time sped up again and kneeled over pain with a gasp for air while blood dripped down her body from where the searing hot pellets had grazed her flesh. Distracted by the injury she was unable to avoid receiving a kick to her side from the Spartan's titanium boot. She rolled across the ground for several feet, straight into the backyard's tree. She barely to stand up and sidestepped a swift follow up attack from the spartan and levied a swipe to his back. 6 groaned in agony as sparks danced across his back from the damage caused by his opponent's attack. Karasuba capitalized on the opportunity and managed to get her blade in front of his throat.

"Hmph, looks like that's checkmate for you." The black sekirei purred, amused by her apparent victory over the super-soldier.

"I'm not that easy to beat." 6 grunted defiantly in response. He swung his head back and bashed Karasuba smack in the center of her face. The blade grazed 6's faceplate once again as his opponent reeled from the reverse headbutt. The spartan ducked down under the sword and spun to face Karasuba again, he pounced towards her with a fist extended into punch. Karasuba, now sporting a black eye, hunched forward as the wind rushed out of her lungs and spit flew from her mouth. She did find the strength to slash her blade at the Spartan's torso while in mid-flight from the strike. Both warriors hit the ground hard after that exchange, which created a small cloud of dust in their wake.

When Karasuba lifted head up to make an attempt at standing on her feet again, she could not help but blush profusely at the situation that she and her potential ashikabi had found themselves in. 6's fist had landed in between the sekirei's large breasts, even groping one of them, while his helmet's faceplate was laying somewhere much more… precious… to the black sekirei. Karasuba's good eye twitched at the very sight of it, this was certainly the last thing she had ever expected to occur in the middle of a fight in her entire life. The onlookers from the inn widened their eyes at the view, one of them in particular couldn't help but giggle at what was happening to one of the scariest sekirei alive.

The brunette on the second floor burst into a fit of laughter. "Oh my god! AHAHAHA!" She clutched her sides as she roared at completely unexpected hilarity of the situation. Even the composed white-haired fellow couldn't help but chuckle at the absurd moment that was taking place before his eyes. The blue haired landlady put a hand over her mouth and giggled cheekily at the black sekirei and armored warrior.

"How dare you?! You damned human, I'm going to chop your head off!" Karasuba sputtered in a mixed reaction of overwhelming arousal and fury.

She bucked wildly to shake the spartan off of her and kneed him in the chin. 6 had landed on his back yet again, he'd grit his teeth when the hit came, the strike had certainly hurt more than he'd expected. Dazed from the hit, 6 shook his head to recover and moved to stand himself back up. He reacted just in time to catch Karasuba's blade with his own two hands before it could pierce through his scratched-up visor. The angry black sekirei pressed down hard on her weapon, forcing 6 to lose his grip on the blade bit by bit. 6 screamed loudly as he pushed the blade back upwards, when enough room had been made 6 raised his knee and kicked Karasuba back. For a brief moment Karasuba was stunned from the attack but caught herself and somersaulted backwards, gracefully landing on her feet in a cat-like manner.

Both of them charged at each other, determined to be the victor and decide the outcome. 6 sidestepped a quick stab from Karasuba and retaliated with a swift chop to her shoulder. The sekirei gasped when she felt the sudden pain from her collar bone cracking. Such pain served to frustrate her quite a bit since it became far more difficult to maneuver with severe internal injuries. Her own body was beginning to scream at her that it was suffering, but she did not care. She would overcome this challenge; it was merely a matter of timing. She smirked and looped her legs in between 6's, catching the spartan off guard. With a simple twist, Karasuba dropped her prey to the ground.

6 was quick to recover and back-flipped to his feet, he dashed at Karasuba with a fist reared back for maximum impact force. Karasuba did something similar and twirled her blade before charging headlong at the spartan with a loud battle-cry, a small boom echoed when they finally collided with one another. Both of them halted several feet away from one another in a completely still manner. 6 was the first to drop to his knees, he placed a hand to where Karasuba had landed her slice on his armor. Karasuba grinned while she knelt in a crouched position and tried to stand up, she groaned in pain and twirled her sword.

"Alright, that's quite enough!" Said a soft female voice. Both fighters turned their attention to the home and standing on the back porch was a beautiful purple haired woman in a white kimono.

"Well this is unexpected. Long time no see Miya, so this is where you've been living all this time." Karasuba relaxed slightly and greeted the woman with a warm smile.

The blue haired woman narrowed her eyes at the swordswoman. "You aren't welcome here, scum. I will deal with you in a moment." She then turned her attention to the spartan and the super-soldier's short hairs began to stand on their ends while under her gaze. "And you have damaged my home. I hope you are going to take responsibility and pay for these damages that you have caused." The woman now known as Miya lectured the soldier as if he was a naughty child who'd been caught breaking things on purpose. Her calm words though were betrayed by her demonic aura, if 6 could call it that from what he could understand.

Misako was downright terrified by the landlady's gaze. "And yet the covenant calls you a demon! I- I don't have blood to freeze b-but, i-if I still did then she'd be the reason behind it!"

"Best not to think about or focus on it, block her out if you can. We can get out of this, just listen to me and stay calm, Misako." 6 reassured his digital partner.

"Right, just focus on you. I can try to do that, 6." The AI took a digital breath to calm herself down.

"Good."

"Ahem, are you listening to me?" Miya asked the spartan.

"I apologize for the collateral damage ma'am, but given the circumstances I believe you can understand why I did so." 6 maintained his composure and replied as he pointed at Karasuba, the sekirei in question had a relaxed look on her face.

Miya nodded in acknowledgement of the Spartan's dilemma. It would not be the first time that someone had been desperate to flee from Karasuba, and she was not going to fault him for that. "Perhaps, but that does not excuse what you have done to my inn." She said sternly to the soldier.

"I understand ma'am, though I admit that I currently lack the funds to make amends financially. Again, I apologize for my destructive intrusion into your home." 6 told her honestly. He wasn't lying, without access to any bank accounts or any form of currency at the moment he could not pay her back.

"Then we shall figure out another way for you to repay me when this is over. May I please know your name?" The lovely, yet terrifying, owner said cordially.

"You can call me 6, ma'am." The spartan grunted. "That's what I prefer to go by." 6 had to admit, she was showing a great deal of restraint when it came to him. From what he understood, a normal civilian would be cursing and shouting at him in anger for plowing through the house. Yet she was calm and collected when the two of them had spoken to one another. That raised a red flag

"Very well 6-san, I appreciate your honesty on this matter and I understand your situation. But do not forget, this is no small affair." Miya said with a charming smile. The spartan could swear though, that a few moments earlier she had been radiating an aura of some kind that set him on edge. Regardless, he knew it would be counterproductive to be rude to the person who seemed to give his enemy a moment for pause. If he had to payback an outstanding debt in the meantime, then so be it.

The landlady then turned her gaze away from the soldier, to the nuisance that is Karasuba who had arrived on her property without permission.

"What are you looking at me for?" Karasuba feigned innocence in response to Miya's oppressing glare.

Miya stared at her with a demonic aura radiating from every fiber of her being. "Don't bother playing ignorant with me, scum. The reason should be fairly obvious to you, since you are the one who caused this mess. Now I insist that you leave my home, or things will get even more unpleasant than they already are. It would be wise for you not to test my patience." The landlady retorted.

Karasuba sarcastically held up her hands and shook them in mock terror. "Ooh threats, I'm so scared. Your little trick doesn't work so well on me you know." A smirk of satisfaction graced the twisted huntress's lips. "But what the heck, I'll humor you and be on my way… on one condition." She stuck up her free index finger. "Oh, and to the moron with a death-wish who laughed at me earlier, you're going to regret that. Miya won't protect you from me forever."

A certain buxom brunette froze in terror at what she'd just heard from the infamous discipline squad leader. 'Oh my god! She actually heard that?!'

"You're in no position to make demands here. Now I want you to leave." Miya hissed as she stared down her sworn foe, her dark aura and hanya mask seemingly having no effect. "And you should refrain from antagonizing me by threatening my tenants, scum."

"On the contrary, I am in a great position to make a bargain, Miya. In fact, I'll be nice and make it simple for everyone involved, the one teeny thing I want for right now is something a little special from the tin man over there." Karasuba pointed at 6 with a smile on her face. She looked straight at the spartan and licked her lips. "I just want a kiss from that lug, that's all. How does that work for ya?"

Miya didn't voice her answer, but she was extremely subtle about her shock at the prospect of what she bearing witness to. Her elegant eyes revealed a twinge of surprise at what she was about to witness. 'You've picked him, haven't you?' She said in her MIND as she gazed at the black hearted dog of MBI.

Karasuba noticed the expression on Miya's face and nodded confidently before she turned her gaze to the spartan, her hips sexily swayed from side to side as she approached the elite soldier.

Once she'd gotten directly in front of him, she put her index finger on his torso in a seductive fashion and rubbed the titanium plate, feeling the weathered metal beneath her finger tip. "See big guy, I just want a little something that you probably didn't give to the other two. For now, that's all I want, otherwise I'll keep coming after you day after day until either we kill each other or I get what I want anyway." Karasuba purred to the super soldier.

The spartan remained silent for a moment, contemplating what to do about the whole situation. On one hand, if he gave in to her request then she would no longer be a direct threat, but on the other hand there was more to it that had yet to be explained. The entire world had frozen in time around the two of them, while 6 looked into her grey eyes she stared expectantly into his visor. To the onlookers within the building though, the two expert fighters seemed to be generating a bone chilling aura from the spot where they stood. Wills clashed within that brief moment of time which stretched for what felt to the observers like an eternity.

"It's all up to you choose how this will end. Think carefully now." The black sekirei advised the spartan, hoping he'd make the smart choice to submit to her whims. It was really the only option for her victim to take if he wanted to live, or at least know a moment of peace outside of Miya's protective shadow.

6 frowned behind his visor at the idea of surrendering to the vicious killer but his options didn't leave much real choice. "Misako, do you have any suggestions?"

Misako's avatar popped up in the corner of his visor. "Beats me, I'm not so good with reading people. I'm specialized to handle data management and intel gathering, not figuring whatever this insanity is." The AI shrugged, clueless on how to handle a standoff of this nature. "However, I will say that you should make a choice pretty quick. The longer this drags out, the more I want to run away, and you're the only one of the two of us with actual legs." She joked to make light of the tense situation, but she failed miserably.

Left with a lack of helpful advice on what do, 6 wanted to pinch his brow in frustration. He had a pretty yet incredibly lethal stalker to deal with and one solution was relatively simple, though he heavily disliked it. He knew the undeniable fact that it was up to him, and him alone, to figure out what to do in order to solve this problem.

He stood silent for a brief moment to ponder the options in his mind. What had to choose was either to refuse and deal with fighting Karasuba every single day, or capitulate to her demands and hopefully get her to leave peacefully.

6 let out a deep sigh and clenched his fist in irritation. "Fine, you get to kiss me." He grunted at the beautiful killer that stood in front of him.

"What did you say 6-kun? I didn't quite catch that. Do me a favor and speak up. I can't hear you if you're going to be so quiet." MBI's infamous hound leaned toward the spartan. She held a hand to her ear, clearly mocking the tired warrior.

"I said fine." 6 growled loudly at Karasuba. "You heard what I said; you get to kiss me." He was not comfortable at all with capitulating to psychotic woman's demands, but being stubborn about it would be more trouble than it was worth. If this was all he had to do in order to receive a moment of peace, which was a small price to pay, then so be it.

"Great! I knew you'd see it my way, handsome! Now just take your helmet off and let's get started." She made no effort to hide her giddiness at the prospect of satisfying the thrill of her hunt. Karasuba licked her lips and internally purred with lust at the thought of what was hidden behind the mask for her to uncover.

6 put his hands upon the sides of his helmet and slowly began to remove it. Air hissed when the suit's hermetic pressure seals unlocked, which exposed the spartan to the planet's atmosphere. Every onlooker within the confines of the suburban home held their breath as the mystery of the stranger's identity was revealed for them to see. 6 leaned his head forward as he gently pulled the Mjolnir helmet off of his skull.

On instinct, Karasuba put her blade to his throat, just in case her victory would be snatched away. "Ah, ah, ah. You made a deal with, remember? That means no funny business from you, soldier boy. I'll have to cut you up into pieces if you break it, then again I could just slice off a limb and you'd still live. Still, it'd be disappointing to ruin a man like you after all the trouble I went through to get my hands on you."

"Do you want me alive or not? The way you're threatening me suggests otherwise." 6 groaned, the helmet just barely exposing his pale neck.

"Make no mistake, I'd prefer to take you home alive, big boy. After all, I didn't come this far just to toss you away like a tin can." Karasuba taunted the spartan with a playful warning. "But that being said, don't tempt me or else."

6 growled and slowly pulled the helmet off, finally revealing his face for the group to see. The first instinct of the 'more interested' females watching him was to blush at his roguishly handsome face. His black hair was short in a well maintained crew cut, adding to his military style appearance. The Spartan's face bore a vertical scar over his right eye and an x shaped mark on his left cheek. At first glance with his striking looks, the young man appeared to be a Japanese native, but upon further inspection his pale/tan skin tone and eye color alluded that he was of mixed descent. Fierce amber eyes laid behind the gaze of the spartan, his intense stare being that of a hardened warrior.

He looked at Karasuba expectantly and focused on her own gray orbs, his thousand-yard stare seemed to pierce through her own predatory gaze. Karasuba's heartbeat rapidly increased, meanwhile her nether regions burned with overwhelming desire to claim her prize. Within her mind a brief flash of countless battles played in her while she stared into 6's burning eyes, and a moment later the vison had gone. Before that she was well aware that she'd struck solid gold when it came to an ashikabi she could stand, but that vision of all-out war had served to reinforce her desires even further. To her it was a major bonus that her trophy possessed handsome face of man who'd seen great amounts of carnage in the field of battle and spilled the blood of many foes. She wanted, no…. she NEEDED to finally signal her conquest of the bear sized man before her.

All resistance having faded from her mind, she pounced on the soldier in a feral manner borne of her instinct to claim a worthy ashikabi. Karasuba wrapped her legs around 6's waist, clinging to his torso while she smashed her lips against his own. A bright symbol flared on the back of her neck and two dark vulture-like wings of energy burst from her back around the shoulders. Karasuba cried out in sheer ecstasy as the power from her emergence exploded within her body. When she pulled away to take a breath of air, the sekirei gasped and lolled her tongue as she panted from the need for oxygen.

Karasuba then grinned with a satisfied expression on her face. "Well handsome, as you probably already know, I'm no.4 Karasuba…. This is the pledge of my blade, exterminate the sworn enemy of my ashikabi. I'm yours now and forever." She told the spartan. "Hehe, I've got myself a genuine knight in armor, complete with an iron horse."

6 grabbed her by the throat and clutched it tightly.

"What the fu- GAK!" Karasuba choked out. "You sneaky son of a BI- URK! You waited til I was defenseless, well played."

"Hmph, I changed my mind about our little arrangement." 6 smirked triumphantly as he clenched the woman's throat with his fist. "I should tell you, I hate to lose." He slightly loosened his grip on the psychotic sekirei's throat.

"What a coincidence, so do I." The black sekirei chuckled. "We're more alike than I thought, 6-kun. We're perfect for each other…." Karasuba whispered as she drifted into unconsciousness and her world faded to black.

-END CHAPTER-

A/N: JUST TO BE CLEAR: SHE'S KO'ED, NOT DEAD


	7. PREVIEW NOT OFFICAL CHAPTER

Halo: Of Wolves and Wagtails

Episode 7: PREVIEW AND QUICK UPDATE [IN PROGRESS: NOT OFFICIAL TITLE]

 **PLEASE READ AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

A/N: I apologize or this tiny chunk of the story not being an official chapter, but I want every one to know that I am working on this and to PLEASE stay tuned in. I'm trying to cobble something together as I'm writing this, but ideas for this chapter they aren't sticking very well and I'm having a difficult time trying to portray how the characters would act in this situation after what has just occurred. This is so frustrating that I want to burn off my eyebrows! GRRRRR!

Please be patient with me everybody, I'm doing my best to deliver on this latest chapter but life and writer's block are a nightmare right now, not to mention I have other stories to attend to. I want to get this out there so bad but I also want to get it right, I hope you all can understand that. I want to portray these characters to the best of my ability and tell a good story here, but unfortunately I'm stumped and one of the people I rely on for a second opinion has been silent. I am kicking around some ideas with other people I know, but I am unsure how these will go over with everyone, and one idea I am currently working with is very a radical one. I will either change this chapter to the full version when I have a chance, or post the full version after it, but it will take time to get this page right and make it unique from what other writers have done.

If you are going to leave a review on this post then I recommend that you make it a guest review so that you are able to leave your true review for the full version later when it comes out, that is if I replace this chapter with the full version rather than posting the new page after it.

Also, I am considering rewriting and removing Karasuba from the harem until a later time as I now realize that I have taken away what is essentially MBI's strongest field asset and may have made things far too easy for 6.

Sincerely, Dman.

* * *

With his captive now unable to attack, the spartan carefully hefted the sleeping sekirei over his shoulder. He then turned to face the woman she'd called Miya, and put his helmet back on as if nothing had happened. A quick hiss of air from the helmet and suit's connection points signaled that the pressure seal had been reactivated.

'That's better.' 6 sighed to himself, comfortable to have his helmet on once again to cover his face. A bit of dust from the ground had covered the visor and 6 immediately wiped it away with his free hand. The sound of impatient coughing drew his attention over to the owner of the home he'd disturbed. He immediately craned his head over to look at her and see what she wanted.

"Now 6, I believe it is time we had a discussion about the current… predicament." Miya narrowed her eyes as she looked over the spartan, her view had briefly focused on the object of her displeasure that rested on the man's shoulder. But a short moment later she had returned her gaze to the spartan's silver visor with a deceptively welcoming smile on her face.

"I agree ma'am." 6 nodded calmly as he approached the back door of the modest home.

"We have much to discuss in regards to your new arrangement, with Karasuba in particular. And that is on top of discussing your means of repaying me for the damages you've caused to my home." Miya said as she opened the door for the spartan. The soldier spotted a pair of sandals

"Of course, and I beg your pardon but I can't easily remove my boots. Doing so would require me to remove my entire uniform." 6 said as he stepped onto the porch and pointed at his feet.

"Very well, I will overlook that issue for the time being." Miya said calmly and then gestured for 6 to go inside.

"Thank you for your consideration." He replied as he stepped through the doorway into the home's interior.

-SEVERAL MINUTES LATER-

6 sat across from Miya inside the living room, Karasuba laid unconscious beside him. The lovely landlady was solely focused on the man's stoic face, his calm expression did not waver in the slightest while under her gaze. For a short time the room was very silent, despite the presence of 2 of the other residents of the inn. Nervous shuffling could be heard from the direction of the brunette as she shifted around to find a comfortable spot to sit at. The handsome silver haired man barely made a sound though, he leaned against the wall quietly as he observed the eerily calm soldier that was staring down Miya. The tension in the living room had become so thick that it could be cut with a sharp carving knife.

-END PREVIEW-


	8. Hot Pursuit

Halo: Of Wolves and Wagtails

Episode 7: Hot Pursuit

A/N: Holy shit this took a while to write, 10,000 words. I hope everyone likes this but I realize that it might rub some people the wrong way. Hopefully it doesn't but I couldn't think of anything else. I had other ideas for it but I'm not sure how to put them into place. As always, let me know if I didn't portray the characters right,please!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

AND

HAPPY HALO-DAYS!

Posted on 12/24/2019

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[BESTBOI: Just did. :) ]

[Soggy Socks 117: Here ya go, the official version.]

[Leader: Ok.]

[Evowizard25: Thank you! I'm glad you like what I did! This chapter might not be as good but I did the best that I could.]

[matthew116: Yes it will be, when the right time comes of course.]

[Halo312: I love that idea, it'll be difficult but I will try to do that.]

[Slim A Lou Prime: Yeah it wouldn't work. I will, just need to figure out what kind of weapon. How about a fire axe?]

[tirandostylo: Yeah, it was a bit short. Thanks. I am trying to let it flow as well as I can, but it's not easy.]

[Guest: Thanks, and yes it's too late to change that anyway so she is staying.]

[Luminescent Rainbow Veins: She's here to stay.]

[VGBlackwing: The roughest lovemaking ever...]

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-SHIN TOWER: SEVERAL MINUTES EARLIER-

The sun shone brightly above the massive tower that loomed over the city, and within the building various employees were working there day jobs as per usual. Among those many employees caught up in the daily goings on within the gilded cage was the chief researcher of MBI Takami Sahashi. While she sat at her desk with a frustrated look in her eyes, the lady of science made sure to busy herself with her tedious paper work in order to avoid dealing with the other bane of her existence, Minaka. She reached for her fresh cup of hot coffee, careful to avoid spilling the hot beverage. Such an accident would only add to her misery, and that was the last thing she needed to deal with on top of her work. As Takami brought the cup to her lips and took a calm sip of the brew, she glanced at the picture of her two children that sat upon her desk. With a tired sigh, she set the cup back down and further examined the picture within the frame.

At the time the photo was taken, both of the two kids were only a few years old without a care in the world. She could recall the joys of that time, watching them grow into the people they are, and the whole time they'd had no idea of the other group to which she also been a mother of sorts. But then that role wasn't truly hers, that was something more of number 1's role to the other children she'd raised. A shiver ran down the scientist's back at that moment, the very thought of that terrifying hanya was not something she liked to dwell upon, so she turned her thoughts to something else.

One of the lucky things that had occurred was the swift retrieval of Benitsubasa and Haihane. Both of them were already awake and had been treated for their light wounds from the battle with the spartan. Their report had been added to the pile of paperwork that sat on the researcher's desk, she had moved to the top of her list when they had given it. What the spartan had said to them was certainly a bit enlightening about how the man operated, and it definitely would play a role in profiling the soldier's behavior.

It was a good turn of events that many of the sekirei hadn't been released into the city yet, aside from some of the more powerful ones that is. One of the few brain types still in the tower was able to force the UNSC ship's systems to be more accessible. There was no technology a brain type couldn't force to function if they were powerful enough, and Takami knew that all too well when it came to a certain redhead she knew. With her 'gift from the gods' as Minaka put it, that girl was dangerous behind the screen of a computer. Just where had the little redhead decided to hide though? Takami knew of very few places that could give the runner comfortable sanctuary without being caught by MBI.

She tapped the desk with her finger as she ran the jumble of thoughts through her mind. So many questions lingered for her, and they currently had no answers beyond mere speculation. All in all, for Takami, it just amounted to a new headache on top of her usual suffering with Minaka's twisted insanity. Not to mention the tidal wave of guilt that constantly plagued her conscience for what she was going to help him do to all the little birds she'd raised, each of their wings would be ripped off when the time came.

Suddenly the phone on her desk sprang to life with a series of loud beeps, which shook her from her thoughts. A scowl formed on her face as she picked up the telephone and brought it to her ear. "This had better be good." She hissed to the employee on the other end.

"Ma'am, you may want to get over here it's important!" A random employee told her in a shaky tone.

"Tell me what you mean!" She demanded.

"Takami, report to the monitor room. It'll be a surprise." Minaka had apparently taken the phone from the employee.

"Fine, I'm on my way." Takami griped as she slammed the phone down on the receiver. 'Damn you Minaka.' She thought while she briskly strode into the hall of the building. It took her a few minutes of walking before she reached the surveillance room that was set up to watch over the entire city and soon to be the place for monitoring the Sekirei Plan. Once Takami had arrived at the entrance to the surveillance room, she pulled an ID card out of her coat pocket and slid it over the authorization sensor. The door gave an audible ping as a light above it flashed green and the metal security door slid open. She took a deep breath and proceeded into the room that was filled with personnel and all manner of control panels and screens. From her perspective, it was an advanced setup that surpassed even the likes of the American NASA mission control room in Houston, not that she had ever seen it personally.

"Now what is all this about, Minaka?" She growled at her former paramour.

"Take a look at the monitors Takami. We managed to track down Karasuba…." Minaka pointed at the main screen.

Takami's eyes expanded to the size of dinner plates when she witnessed Karasuba casually stroll up to the man whom she assumed was the same super soldier who'd escaped the trap at the storage complex.

"It's a pity that every camera we use strangely has his face blurred." Minaka mused.

The chief researcher didn't answer, she could only watch in horror as one of her most recent fears came true. She watched Karasuba make a feral pounce onto the armored space warrior and her jaw dropped in terror at what she was now witness to. The alarm sound for the winging of a sekirei then blared over the room's speakers and the image of Karasuba's face appeared on the monitor next to window with a question mark.

"Minaka, what have you done?" Takami said quietly.

"This has made things much more interesting. She may have her wings, but that doesn't mean the spartan has her loyalty yet." Minaka replied.

-MAISON IZUMO-

With his captive now unable to attack, the spartan carefully hefted the sleeping sekirei over his shoulder. He then turned to face the woman she'd called Miya, and put his helmet back on as if nothing had happened. A quick hiss of air from the helmet and suit's connection points signaled that the pressure seal had been reactivated.

'That's better.' 6 sighed to himself, comfortable to have his helmet on once again to cover his face. A bit of dust from the ground had covered the visor and 6 immediately wiped it away with his free hand. The sound of impatient coughing drew his attention over to the owner of the home he'd disturbed. He immediately craned his head over to look at her and see what she wanted.

"Now 6, I believe it is time we had a discussion about the current… predicament." Miya narrowed her eyes as she looked over the spartan, her view had briefly focused on the object of her displeasure that rested on the man's shoulder. But a short moment later she had returned her gaze to the Spartan's silver visor with a deceptively welcoming smile on her face.

"I agree ma'am." 6 nodded calmly as he approached the back door of the modest home.

"We have much to discuss in regards to your new arrangement, with Karasuba in particular. And that is on top of discussing your means of repaying me for the damages you've caused to my home." Miya said as she opened the door for the spartan. The soldier spotted a pair of sandals

"Of course, and I beg your pardon but I can't easily remove my boots. Doing so would require me to remove my entire uniform." 6 said as he stepped onto the porch and pointed at his feet.

"Very well, I will overlook that issue for the time being." Miya said calmly and then gestured for 6 to go inside.

"Thank you for your consideration." He replied as he stepped through the doorway into the home's interior.

-SEVERAL MINUTES LATER-

6 sat across from Miya inside the living room, Karasuba laid unconscious beside him. The lovely landlady was solely focused on the man's stoic face, his calm expression did not waver in the slightest while under her gaze. For a short time, the room was very silent, despite the presence of 2 of the other residents of the inn. Nervous shuffling could be heard from the direction of the brunette as she shifted around to find a comfortable spot to sit at. The handsome silver haired man barely made a sound though, he leaned against the wall quietly as he observed the eerily calm soldier that was staring down Miya. The tension in the living room had become so thick that it could be cut with a sharp carving knife.

6 briefly put his gaze on the unconscious Karasuba, she was certainly one of the stranger individuals he'd come across in here the distant past. In all his time he'd rarely met a person with even half of her bloodlust besides Emile, and even then, his old teammate may have difficulties handling this woman. The more he thought about it in that brief the more he was certain that if they were insurrectionist… Emile and this woman would get along fairly well. If ONI didn't dissect her, she would be an extremely useful field asset with her skillset, disregard and overall loathing for human life, besides Spartans of course.

Miya tapped her dainty manicured fingers on the table to signal for 6 to pay attention to her. She raised an eyebrow to the Spartan's silver visor as if she were silently asking him to properly introduce himself now that Karasuba was indisposed and unable to interrupt the conversation for the time being until she woke, whenever that would be. The spartan immediately returned his focus to her, and patiently waited for her to be the first one to speak. But surprisingly enough it would be Uzume who took that moment to break the uncomfortable silence among the those in the living room.

"So, uh…, what brings you here big man?" Uzume said in her meager attempt to break the silence.

"Seriously, that's the best ice breaker she's got?" Misako snorted.

"Judging by the way she's shuffling and glancing at Karasuba, it's the best she can do. Everyone in this room seems to fear her, except for Miya apparently." 6 remarked calmly, he could certainly understand their fear when he considered the hellish amount of trouble that he went through to bring Karasuba to heel.

"I got that much from how the two of them bantered with each other." Misako crossed her digital arms as she stared at the grey-haired psychopath. She then glanced back at Uzume and noticed the expectant look on the beautiful girl's face. "Well this is going to be boring, let me know how it turns out! I'll just be spending a while going through the mission data from Reach that you've got in here on the back up drive." The AI chirped to her partner and disappeared from view, which left 6 on his own.

'Fine.' 6 said mentally. "That's classified." He curtly told Uzume.

"Now, now, Uzume. Our guest has just arrived and we must show our hospitality first, so why don't you go brew some tea for us?" Miya politely told her tenant.

"Err yeah! S…sure Miya-sama! Be right back!" Uzume disappeared, a look of terror was barely masked by a panicked smile from the buxom brunette.

"Now I do believe it is time for proper introductions, as you already know I am Miya, my full name is Asama Miya. I am the landlady of this establishment, Maison Izumo. It is a pleasure to meet you, though I would prefer under different circumstances."

"And as I said before, you can refer to me by my designation, Noble 6, or 6 for short. As for the problem currently presented by Karasuba, if you want, I would be more than glad to accommodate you by tossing her out." 6 said casually as he discussed terms with the purple haired beauty.

"I would like that very much, but for now, so long as she behaves or remains unconscious, that won't be necessary." She waved her hand dismissively with a cheeky smile.

"If you say so, ma'am." The spartan shrugged.

"However, during your stay here she is your responsibility. Any problems she may cause are yours to resolve." Miya told him politely.

6 did a mental spit take at what she'd said. "I'm not sure I follow." He replied in a monotone voice.

"To put it simply, you brought her here, now you must keep her in line." The landlady said flatly.

"Now who said I would be staying here?" 6 narrowed his eyes at her behind his visor.

"I know you are running from MBI, her being here is proof of that." Miya clarified.

"Perhaps, but I was doing fine on my own ma'am." 6 retorted.

"Says the man the man who was casually plowing through homes to stay alive." Miya shot back sharply.

'Clever.' The spartan mused to himself. "Fair enough, but you are the one who said I would be staying here." He tried to mount a strategic change of topic.

'You aren't the only one who can play this game, young man.' She said mentally while she gazed into the Spartan's visor. "I am quite sure that you require sanctuary from MBI, correct?" Unfortunately for 6, Miya did not take the subtle bait.

"Yes and no, I am capable of taking care of myself ma'am." 6 told in a strait-laced manner.

"Oh yes, from what you demonstrated I have no reason to doubt that at all, but MBI will hunt you until they get what they want. Karasuba might not have come after you in the first place if that wasn't the case." Miya told her prospective new tenant.

"We should move on; I owe you a debt and I want to know how I can pay it back." 6 tried again too change the subject again. This time he was lucky enough for Miya to relent in her campaign of words.

"Ah yes, your debt. For the damage you have caused, you owe me quite a large sum of yen for the repairs to the walls and windows that you and Karasuba smashed not to mention the mess you made in my backyard." She told him with a look of pleasantness that betrayed the dominant undertone to her words, the spartan was in her pocket and she knew it.

"Out of curiosity, why not just bill Karasuba for the damage since she is the root of the problem? I's sure her employer is capable of repaying… work expenses." 6 questioned her reasoning, he knew full well that MBI was a powerful organization and such a trivial matter would be easily dealt with.

"Trying to shirk your responsibilities 6-san? How disappointing, I had you pegged for a man that repays his misdeeds." Miya said as a dark aura took shape behind her.

"Not at all ma'am, it's just that Karasuba is the one who chased me here to your home. If she wasn't after me, none of this would have happened in the first place." 6 said fearlessly as he gazed into the abyss of darkness that took shape around the landlady.

"I am aware of that 6-san, though I would suggest you stop attempting to shirk your responsibilities. No excuses, you cannot get out of this." Miya said firmly, her oppressive dark aura intensified and a demonic mask appeared behind her.

"Fair enough, though I'm not exactly sure if will stay here." 6 knew he did not want to drag out this battle of wills and surrendered since he was in no position to bargain.

"Excellent, though it may prove easier and in your best interest for you to avoid MBI if you choose to remain here." The ominous mask and landlady's dark aura dissipated, quickly replaced with a new feeling of satisfaction.

"I'd like to ask a question." Kagari chimed in coolly.

"Kagari, don't you know it is rude to interrupt a conversation?" Miya turned her piercing gaze to him. He froze for a brief second but immediately regained his composure.

"I know, but I feel I should ask it. Trust me on this, Miya." Kagari said with an air of confidence.

"Hmm, very well Homura-san. But to whom are you asking this question?" She inquired, curious of his reason behind the questions he would ask and to whom they would be for.

"To 6." He replied.

"What do you want to know?" The spartan turned his head to look straight at the white-haired man.

"For starters, why is MBI chasing you? You've shown how tough you are, otherwise it seems like you'd have been dead a long time ago with how hard that psycho tried to kill you. The armor is also pretty fancy, it could be your armor since it looks like something out of a sci-fi anime or manga. To me that's more than just a few Red Flags." Kagari bombarded the spartan with several difficult questions. He stared intently at the super soldier's mask and narrowed his eyes slightly while he did so.

"They have something I want, and I have something they want." 6 retorted bluntly.

"Which is?" Kagari pressed him to clarify the meaning behind his statement. While the spartan showed no visible irritation at the constant question, internally he grew slightly annoyed at the handsome fellow for being so nosy. Such matters were none of his business and 6 had no intention of telling him more than he absolutely needed to know for the time being.

"It's none of your business." 6 answered firmly. Kagari apparently did not take too kindly to being snubbed in such a manner, but he was unable to fire off another question in his arsenal since Miya decided to cut off the irritated young man.

"That may be quite difficult for you 6-san." Miya informed the spartan and briefly paused to consider her own words. She mentally nodded and began to inform 6 of the obstacles in his way. "Though to the unwary it may seem like an ordinary skyscraper, MBI's main building is heavily fortified."

"I'll find a way." 6 grunted, undeterred by the prospect of an impossible task. "How would you know this anyway? In fact, how do you know so much about Karasuba and MBI in general?" 6 said with a heavy amount of suspicion in his usually calm tone. From what it seemed to 6, Miya was not exactly keen on being very transparent with him without paying a high price.

"My husband used to work for them so I've been privy to some information, and it would be unwise for you to directly attack them." Miya replied curtly.

'What game are you playing Miya? This guy is trouble and you know it.' Homura thought.

"I'm back! Here's the tea Miya." Uzume chirped as she walked back into the room and set the tray down for 6 and Miya.

"Arigato, Uzume." Miya said with a warm smile.

"Your welcome." Uzume nodded.

"It's just some friendly advice, and besides you have an outstanding debt to repay to me, don't you? You can't pay me back if something happens to you." The Landlady added with an air of concern to her words that was laced with a touch of greed.

"I'll take that under advisement. How much will the repairs cost?" 6 said stoically.

"Oh, I will have to call a contractor first to figure that out. But for now, I think we can agree that what you owe me is quite substantial. I'm quite sure a strapping young man like yourself should have no trouble finding work to accomplish that goal." Miya said with a deceptive smile.

"I need a specific amount, it would make this issue less complicated." 6 replied with more force in his tone, though he'd had a taste of Miya's terrifying aura, he'd been trained not to back down so easily.

"You'll have to wait until I know more, 6." Miya narrowed her eyes ever so slightly at the Spartan's act of courage in the face of her authority.

"If that's it, ma'am, I'll be taking my leave." The spartan said as stood up from the seiza position and made his way to leave the building. As lifted Karasuba over his shoulder and began to march toward the door, Uzume got in front of the hulking man in armor and put her hands on her hips.

"Hold on a second big man, where are you going?" She asked him with a confident look on her face.

"Somewhere that isn't here, that's all you need to know." 6 snubbed her question with a slight lean forward to emphasize his intimidating stature. He stood a good few inches above the lovely brunette and was not one to avoid the use of such a reliable tool that is his raw intimidation factor. Uzume was undeterred by this action, she snorted and took a slight step closer to 6's tall frame.

"Now wait up, you can actually beat the snot out of HER of all people. I'd prefer if you stuck around." She gestured to Karasuba's unconscious form as the deadly beauty hung from the Spartan's shoulder.

"I'd rather not." 6 refused the kind offer, he needed to get out before MBI could send anyone else to chase him and he wanted to dump the breathing baggage on his shoulder.

"Before you go 6, perhaps you would care to enjoy some tea?" Miya offered.

"The sooner I'm gone the better. Isn't it obvious don't want to owe you more than I already do?" 6 grunted his response, lacking more of the tact he had before. His words felt like a sharp barb to Miya, though she did not openly show it. "Arigato for your hospitality ma'am. But I'll survive better on my own. If I stay here, that means that MBI will know where to find me, I can't have that." Unbeknownst to the spartan, Miya was actually more intrigued and entertained by the mystery he presented rather than annoyed by his rude behavior, so she resolved to delve deeper into the secrets he held.

"I am interested in some more information from you 6, and there are things you aren't telling me. In fact, since you owe me such an outstanding balance and I gave you some information about myself, you should provide answers to questions of my own." The landlady subtly demanded of him. She understood that her demands were rattling him, and what he knew would probably be something useful, though she was not sure yet to what end they could be used for.

"We've already made our deal." 6 growled, his irritation was beginning to escalate. The longer he stayed in this building the more he'd have to put up with nosy individuals. He wanted to leave, he wanted to deal with his business against MBI, and yet these people were holding him back.

"Consider it a start on your paying me back." Miya verbally jabbed.

"Fine, shoot. But after this I'm gone." He grumbled with more frustration in his tone.

'Excellent.' Miya thought happily. An idea then popped into her mind and she stood up from the table. "Excuse me for a moment, and please return to your seat 6. There is someone else I need to speak with and I am quite sure they would like to meet you." She said as she rushed off. With a deep sigh, 6 sat down on the floor again and laid Karasuba down beside him. The woman shifted in her slumber and attempted to actually cuddle up with him while she was unconscious. 6 ignored it and allowed her to cozy up to him, it did put her within smacking range if she did anything hasty.

Meanwhile in the hallway, Miya was on her way to the room which housed her secret tenant. She was quick to arrive at the end of the hall and made a sharp rap one the blank panel. There was no response to her knock and so she gave another hard knock on the wall. She wrinkled her brow slightly in annoyance and began to speak. "Matsu, I need you to come out here, now."

"Miya! I don't wanna! I- I know K-Karasuba is out there, I heard her fighting through the walls! If she finds me, I'm dead!" A frightened voice responded from behind the false wall.

"Matsu, don't make me pull you out now." Miya said in a slightly threatening manner, she had brought out her dark aura again to emphasize her desire.

"Alright, alright! I'm coming." The owner of the voice now named Matsu said timidly.

"If you hurry, you may like what you see." Miya added to help coax her tenant out of her hidey hole.

"What do you mean?" Matsu turned the false wall open slightly.

"Follow me, it'll be a surprise." Miya teased the girl behind the wall.

"A surprise?" Matsu peaked out of the door even further, a small glint shown from the rim of her glasses, though the rest of her form was still hidden in shadow.

"Now are you interested?" Miya further baited the girl into to coming out of her hidey hole.

"…Maybe. What's the surprise Miya-dono?" Matsu smirked, her face brimming with curiosity.

"If I told you it wouldn't be a surprise." The landlady grinned cheekily.

"D'oh ok I'm coming out!" Matsu stepped out of the room to reveal herself. Her flowing red locks cascaded down her shoulders and sizeable bust jiggled as she shook a bit in excitement. The redhead took a deep breath and gingerly reached back into her room for a moment to retrieve her laptop, a gut feeling told her she would probably need it.

"I hope the surprise is really good." Matsu hummed with a cautious smile, Miya didn't respond and motioned for the pretty redhead to follow her. The both of them made a brisk walk back to the living room and Matsu curiosity grew by the second. She kept asking herself about what was Miya being so tight lipped for, and just why she needed to leave her room especially with the dreaded dog of MBI so close by. Alas, she could only hold those questions in for a brief moment until they would reach their destination.

They turned the corner and Matsu's jaw dropped; her cheeks flashed red whilst her eyes widened in wonder. 'Oh, holy Amaterasu. All the experiments I could perform….' The pretty redhead mumbled. Sitting only a few feet away from where she currently stood, was the very same extraterrestrial stranger she'd seen on cameras throughout the city.

A quick glance at Miya told Matsu everything she needed to know when the landlady gave her a silent nod of confirmation. 'He's all yours.' Miya said mentally.

Matsu's face lit up as if it was Christmas morning, Karasuba be damned, if this stranger could face her of all people without getting cut to bloody bits, then she had to meet him. If it meant he could be strong enough to protect her from the black dog that laid beside him, the risk would be so worth it to her. Matsu rushed over to 6 and set her computer down on the table before she began her conquest of the Spartan's personal space. Such an interaction was certainly not expected on 6's part when the girl began undressing him with her eyes from his head to his titanium boots.

After a tense moment of observation from the excited redhead, 6 decided to speak. "Can I help you with something?"

"Oh my gosh! You're the one, aren't you?! You're the guy who fell from the sky in that ship! I've been dying to meet ya for the past few days! Uffufufu." She smiled brightly with all of her cute charm turned up to 11.

"Is that so?" 6 said with mild disinterest that was masked by his stoic tone of voice.

"YEP! I've got so many questions for you, big guy! What planet are you from, are you an alien, are you some kind of super hero, or space agent of a galactic police force?" The redhead bombarded the spartan with a rapid barrage of questions to which the spartan could gaze at her in silence as he waited for her to run out of steam. If was being honest with himself, it was an interesting change from the more sensitive questions, whether or not he liked it though was up for debate.

"Now, now, Matsu-tan. Give our guest a moment to answer you." Miya giggled at Matsu's childish wonder at presence of the spartan. 6 rolled his eyes and shook his head lightly, this sitting around was getting on his nerves, but as chief Mendez would have put it, 'hurry up and wait'. He disliked those words very much, but they summed up his current situation perfectly.

"Right, sorry." Matsu blushed and giggled.

6 huffed and smiled at her from behind his helmet. "(1.) Classified. (2.) Not exactly. (3.) No. (4.) Yes and no." 6 told her in a quick and precise fashion. "I'd go into more detail but I have other things to attend to." The spartan said as he stood up again to leave and picked up Karasuba, again. But amidst his haste to leave, he and the other people in the room failed to notice the subtle twitch of the devilish woman's eyes and a tiny smirk that grew on her lips.

"Aw but I still have more questions! Can I at least see your face, please?" Matsu threw him her saddest set of puppy dog eyes.

"No." 6 grunted sternly as turned to leave. He turned his visor to the side and stuck his hand up to wave goodbye. "I'm leaving ma'am, arigato and sayonara." The spartan began to walk away towards the door, but Matsu refused to quit bugging the soldier.

"We've got so much more to talk about! Come on!" Matsu pleaded as 6 stepped out of the front door. The spartan paid her no mind and continued to take his 6-inch steps toward the edge of Miya's property. Neither he or Matsu noticed Karasuba shifting herself ever so slightly towards the sheath of her sword. With a careful lurch to the side, she quickly wrapped her hand fingers around the weapon and opened her eyes fully while she put on a devious grin. All she needed to do now was wait for the perfect moment to strike, she couldn't kill her spartan, but she could get a hold of Matsu and drag her back to MBI. The little thief would get her comeuppance for what she took soon enough. The spartan finally reached the concrete of the sidewalk, officially out of Miya's sphere of influence and in the streets of the Tokyo suburbs. Matsu got in front of him again and made one last attempt to stop him from leaving.

6 snorted and leaned down to speak with Matsu, but he also loosened his grip on the woman over his shoulder ever so slightly. Karasuba felt the small amount of freedom she had gained and began to carve out her plan of attack. "Listen, Matsu. It's been nice talking to you but I can't stay here." The spartan told her firmly and rolled his shoulder a bit, Karasuba's moment had come.

'Now.' She thought as she flicked the sword from 6's back and struck him in the back of the head. With a grunt of pain, he stumbled forward and dropped his lethal payload. Matsu froze in place as Karasuba leapt to the floor and stretched herself out.

"Ah that's much better, I needed the beauty rest I suppose and the power boost from getting my wings feels so good! I'll still have to punish you for knocking me out though. You've been a naughty boy 6-kun."

"Guess I'll just have to hit you harder this time." The spartan threw a punch at her but Karasuba saw it coming and sidestepped the attack. She leapt up as he sped past her and then kicked the back of his helmet. "OOOF." 6 grunted as flew forward through the air.

"Lucky for you 6-kun, I have someone else to deal with right now." She purred viciously and turned her attention to the shivering Matsu. "Hello Matsu, it's been a while hasn't it?"

"K- Karasuba! He winged you?" Matsu stuttered in existential terror while she stood at the non-existent mercy of the disciplinary squad leader.

Karasuba pointed her sword at Matsu's throat. "Minaka wants to talk to you himself-" Before she could finish her sentence 6 had punched her in retaliation for her attack. He then rushed forward and scooped Matsu into his arms in the process. The spartan broke into a hard sprint as he tried to escape from Karasuba once again. Yet again she would have to chase the spartan down, but at least this time the spartan would have to worry about the girl in his arms, and Karasuba would take every advantage she could get.

Matsu blushed while she held on tightly to the Spartan's armored chest-plate. Her dainty fingers clutched onto her savior with all of the strength she could muster into them. She tried not to glance back at the furious hound of hell that was chasing the two of them. She watched 6 take a quick glance at her while he sprinted with all his might to outrun Karasuba. All it took was that reassuring glance, that silent promise, for her to know it would be alright. Her hair fluttered wildly in the wind as she and 6 whipped through the city at an Olympic pace. In her mind thoughts blurred by in a rapid succession, each one of them focused on the knightly warrior that held her like a fairy tale princess. In her happy place it would seem like a fairy tale since she had just been narrowly saved from a demon by a mysterious, heroic knight. She wanted to take the helmet off of him, to see the handsome face of her masked hero.

Matsu turned her stare from the spartan to see a flatbed truck that was going to pass in front of them. With a quick turn of the gears in her head, she wrapped her arms around 6's neck as she waited for him to jump to the vehicle's bed. 6 made his ascent and stomped his boots down onto the steel bed of the truck's rear end. Matsu was about to say something but she was stopped by the sight of Karasuba sprinting across the rooftops that ran parallel to the street their ride was on.

Karasuba somersaulted through the air with a front flip toward the truck and 6 took a leap backwards into the side of a public bus that was traveling in the opposite direction. Matsu shut her eyes, she was afraid, but she had to hold onto him if she wanted to survive this ordeal. She would survive, she just had to keep her faith that 6 would protect her. Glass shattered from the bus's windows upon the Spartan's impact on the side of the vehicle. The spartan then flung from the bus, to fly right in front of a passing car. It was only thanks to nearly flawless timing and luck that 6 barely missed getting plowed into by the cross traffic. He slid across the pavement and onto the crowded sidewalk with a whoosh of sparks from his armor grinding on the concrete. Karasuba jumped at the both of them and 6 rolled slightly to the side, missing her blade by inches. He slapped her to the ground and jumped to his feet with Matsu still hanging onto to him for dear life. She popped her head over his shoulder and blew a raspberry at Karasuba as she and the spartan fled to safety.

The black sekirei was about to try to catch up with her prey, but suddenly two familiar figures leapt down from a nearby rooftop, one a blur of pink, and the other a flash of silver blades. The black sekirei's smile returned when she spotted her subordinates. "Well, took you two long enough." She said to her squad members as they stood beside her. "Just so you know, I got my wings… It was perfect, he's perfect!" Karasuba moaned in pleasure to her fellow squaddies.

Benitsubasa blushed in a mix of terror, arousal, and anger. "You lucky…. GRRRR! Wait, why are you chasing him?"

"Just because I have my wings, doesn't mean he and I see eye to eye yet. Plus, I still have a job to do. If the two of you want to be his sekirei too, then get to work." Karasuba replied.

"WE HAVE TO CATCH THAT DAMN SPARTAN!" Benitsubasa roared at the top of her lungs in fury and took off running to catch 6.

"That's what I like to hear, little red!" Karasuba praised the bubblegum haired fist fighter as she raced after her.

Haihane merely chuckled and licked her lips in hunger at the prospect of catching that elusive man, it was certainly possible now that all three of them were together again and Karasuba had been winged. She chased after her colleagues in a rush to pin down the warrior and the bonus prize of capturing Matsu for interrogation. The three harpies had united again, and this time they were ready for their prey quarry. Haihane took to the rooftops on the opposite side of the street, and Benitsubasa hopped onto the roofs above Karasuba, while the black sekirei herself continued to run along the street to keep pressure on 6.

The spartan checked his motion tracker, two new contacts had appeared, and they were a hostile red. He took a quick breath and poured more strength into his legs to stay ahead of the pack that pursued him. Behind him was an eager Karasuba, above him to his left was Benitsubasa, and to his right was Haihane. All three of them were, which meant three times the trouble, and now he was also at the disadvantage of protecting Matsu. It was a bad situation all around this time, it would be one thing if he were defending just himself but now, he was carrying another target on MBI's list if Karasuba was to be believed.

6 reached a city park with plenty of space to fight and skidded to a halt. It was time to end this, he could not outrun all of them this time, not with Matsu in tow. If they wanted her then she could be useful, and that meant he had to protect her. Matsu looked over 6's shoulder at the terrifying trio and looked at 6 in fear. "Why did you stop?! They're going to catch both of us!"

"I'll hold them here. When I give you an opening to run, take it. Disappear into the crowd if you can." 6 told the redhead.

Matsu dropped out of the Spartan's hands and landed her feet on the pavement. "I won't be able to outrun them, even with a distraction, I'm not a fighter!"

"You can't stay here." 6 growled at her.

"I'm not going to abandon you; I wouldn't get far even if I did!" She told him fiercely.

"I said go!" The spartan barked angrily.

"We'll do this together. I've made my choice." She said with a look of burning determination in her eyes.

Before 6 could retort to her tactical error, all three birds of prey had surrounded the two of them. Benitsubasa stood on his right, Haihane on the left, and Karasuba in the center of the angry trio. Karasuba grinned devilishly at her prey, and 6 took up his fighting stance, he couldn't risk using guns in an area that was overcrowded with civilians. The three enemy fighters had formed a triangle around him, and two of them were ready to pounce on their leader's command. A civilian crowd had formed around the spectacle while police that arrived on scene had cordoned off the area. People had begun taking pictures and videos from their smartphones while they observed the stand-off.

Some of the people even began to cheer at the spartan since he seemed to be hero protecting an innocent girl, while others were ogling the deadly beauties that opposed the super soldier. Karasuba chuckled as she stared down the hardened warfighter, the look on her face was radiating arrogance and bloodlust. Her compatriots shared the sentiment at the idea of capturing the warrior, he'd beaten them once, it wouldn't happen again.

"You've drawn quite a crowd, 6-kun." Karasuba chuckled and pointed her blade at 6. The spartan did not move an inch, or show the slightest trace of fear in his movements. "We've done this dance twice before, ya know, it might get boring. I'll tell you what, how about you hand over Matsu? Do that and I'll be on my way." To a lesser man, that offer would have been a good deal. But 6 knew he couldn't trust Karasuba at all, and besides, Matsu would have her uses if he protected her.

"If you think they came to hear me beg, you'll be disappointed." He growled to the devious witch with his fists clenched and he put a hand in front of Matsu. "I beat you all three of you once, this time will be no different."

"You never beat me, you cheated." Karasuba purred to her ashikabi, the tone to her words unsettled the spartan.

"I'll do what's necessary to win." 6 told her stoically "You on the other hand seem like a sore loser."

"Are you sure about that? I know I'll be a gracious winner!" The black sekirei and rushed at 6, her teammates did the same. 6 stood his ground while the three of them flew at him with blinding speed that made the spectators cheer. 6 caught Benitsubasa's fist and kicked Haihane in the face but Karasuba managed to land a slash across the torso plate of the armor. The grazing hit dropped 6's shield strength to 50% just from that minor hit alone, which made 6 mentally recoil in shock. His opponent's power had skyrocketed beyond what it was during their last fight earlier, what had changed between then and now?

Before he could ponder this change even further, Karasuba followed her slash with a kick that knocked him to the floor. 6 landed flat on the pavement with a loud slam that cracked the pavement below him. Benitsubasa took that chance to begin wailing on the spartan with her two hands and 6 fought to throw her off. He reached for her throat and clamped down on her windpipe, then he smacked her forehead with the upper part of his helmet. Benitsubasa cried out pain from the strike and gripped her skull in agony which 6 a moment to thrust her off and reverse their positions. But just as he was about retaliate with a quick knockout blow like last time, Karasuba had come charging out nowhere with another high kick, this time at the spartan's head, again.

Matsu watched her savior spin and tumble to the ground in a heap of sparking metal. She turned her head to side and stepped back in fear as Haihane approached her. The bandaged blue sekirei gestured Matsu to come over and surrender peacefully, but the pretty redhead held her ground in spite of the dangerous enforcer's presence. But just as Haihane was about to get close enough to get her claws on the redhead, 6 flew at the blue sekirei with a brutal charged punch. Haihane was stunned from the hit and flew across the square for several feet. She caught herself and managed a recovery that got her to land on her feet and scraped her razor sharp talons across the pavement with a shower of bright sparks.

People surrounding the arena cheered at the awe inspiring spectacle of the fight between the armored warrior and the three MBI hounds. The younger, more eager observers cheered the loudest when they saw 6 come to the aid of the redheaded damsel in distress. It was as if they were seeing a manga unfold right in front their eyes, the scene of a mighty hero versus three beautiful villains in a no holds barred slugging match. Among those watching was a young, very muscular high-school student with short bedraggled brown hair who'd happened to passing by. His eyes scanned over the four fighters with the intensity of an experienced hand to hand fighting champion. The brutal military combat tactics of the agile man in armor against the three varied fighting styles of his opponents. Clearly the armored guy was a soldier, the pink girl was an MMA style brawler, while the other two were blade users.

He blocked the crowd out and focused directly on the fighters, not taking his eyes off of them for a moment. Every moment he saw the soldier make was focused on stopping the attackers rather than outright smacking them down, at least he guessed that was why the man in armor was holding back. If that wasn't the case then wasn't really a reason he could think of at all for the restraint that was being shown by the guy protecting the cute redhead. It was painfully clear that the three enemy fighters were putting the soldier on the back foot from how he was just throwing out quick responses to their combined team attacks. Clearly the three of them needed to work as a cohesive unit to bring down their target since brute force alone would cost them the fight. The young man could swear as he watched the man in black defend the girl with red hair, a terrifying visage of a large gray wolf took the soldier's place. He blinked several times at the image and just as quickly as it came, it had vanished. 'That was weird.' The student thought to himself. He shook his head and watched the fight rage on, but now things were starting to get very interesting. A fight like this, well he might want to do more than just spectate. Today had become quite interesting for Baki Hanma.

The advanced soldier threw a kick at the woman with the sword, only to miss and get knocked backwards into the waiting clutches of the girl with the blade gauntlets. A quick reaction was what saved the armored hero when he grabbed a hold of the blade girl's clothes. What followed was a toss of the blade gauntlet girl at the lady samurai who casually stepped to the side like it was just a minor inconvenience. The pinkette leapt above the lady samurai for a downward frontal assault at the man in armor. With insane luck he caught her fists to stop the hit, but a charge from the woman with the sword forced him to let go and backpedal out of the way. Unfortunately that left him open to a hit from the determined pinkette who smacked her fist into his side. Raw force from that strike caused the soldier to skid to the side for a few inches but he still managed to stand on his feet.

All three women rushed in and launched a blitz of rapid attacks on their target. Now that they were working as team they stood their best chance of overpowering him. So long as they did not relent in their combined attacks the soldier could actually lose the battle. Against a pack of angry wolves of high strength working together spelled the end for even the strongest of beasts standing on their own, it was a law of nature. For the soldier this war was one of attrition and he could not fight on forever, something had to give, and he lacked a weapon to properly counter the attacks from the woman with the sword.

Defiance, that was the message behind every punch he threw. He would not give in, not so long as he was going to defend the girl who was caught in his mess. It annoyed him to no end that she wouldn't run and get out of the way of the fight, but like it or not he knew the sad truth that just like she had said, she wouldn't get far on her own. This meant 6 had no choice, if he was going to light a fire under MBI to get what he wanted, then protecting Matsu was his only option. So for every blow he took, he delivered another two unto his foes. 6 exchanged a punch with Benitsubasa and knocked her back, he then delivered a backhand to Haihane and dodged Karasuba's sword. He performed a backflip and delivered an upward kick to Karasuba's jaw. Such a hit would have snapped the neck of regular human, but Karasuba just took the hit and soared into the air.

A few people outside the ring winced when they saw that devasting hit land on the woman's jaw. But the student watching the brawl, he was getting more excited by the action as the fight dragged out. Whoever had trained the soldier was probably one hell of an instructor by his standards.

"Damn it! Just go down!" Benitsubasa roared at 6 as she landed a punch on him, but the spartan just slid back a bit instead of going down. He then dodged another two hits from the pink brawler's deceptively strong fists. Despite the irritatingly stubborn nature her potential ashikabi, Benitsubasa had to admit that she was enjoying this brawl. But then only reason it had gone on longer than before was because shed and fellow enforcers had worked together to bring down the spartan, otherwise they would have failed already. When the opportunity came, 6 sprinted away from her to gather some breathing room and in this case the further he was from her, the more his odds of survival increased.

The pinkette chased after him and smirked, there was nowhere for the spartan to go. Haihane moved ton intercept 6 and cut off whatever retreat he was planning. Karasuba recovered and slashed downward at 6 from her position in in the sky. All three girls attacked at once, each of them believed their target had been cornered. They no idea how wrong they were in their assumptions about what was happening. 6 ducked and rolled as all of their attacks collided with each other, which allowed him to escape by less than a second before they could hit him. Haihane missed being cleaved half by Karasuba but took a jab to the face from her friend Benitsubasa.

6 turned and smirked confidently, things were swinging back in his favor, but without a proper melee weapon he was still at a severe disadvantage over the properly combined power of the squad. His guns simply weren't an option with all the civilians surrounding him, and a stray shot could end up killing someone in the crowd. At least Matsu had managed to stay at the edge of the fighting, but not close enough to the crowd that any MBI personnel among them could grab her without 6 beating them to a pulp. All in all this was still a bad situation, especially with Karasuba now stronger than before.

The three ladies untangled themselves and Benitsubasa stepped forward. She clenched her fist and gritted her teeth, the anger radiating from her would stun a normal man with terror. Her rage changed to a smirk when she slammed her fist into the ground and sent a shockwave of power at the spartan. 6 braced himself for the impact but when it hit he certainly the pain from the strike, little did he know that his magnum had been flung off him and onto the ground. What followed after that was a combined slash attack from Haihane and Karasuba that would have eviscerated him if he had been even marginally slower. They were going all out this time to beat him except for Karasuba, and he couldn't hold back anymore either.

6's mind raced as he tried to weather the storm of combined attacks, and he was getting tired from the extra strain. He clamped onto to Benitsubasa and redirected a punch from her into Karasuba's gut. But the lady samurai jumped over the counter attack and kick the spartan's head down. Haihane then swept the spartan's legs from under him which forced 6 to the floor and Benitsubasa began to wail on him again a barrage of jabs to the helmet. All of the strain threatened to cave in the helmet's visor and shatter it, a small but visible crack stretched across the right side of the thick, reinforced glass as a result. 6 tried to swat at Benitsubasa like before but she and Haihane had pinned his arms.

"HA YES! WE'VE FINALLY CAUGHT YOU, TIN HEAD!" Benitsubasa squealed happily.

"Now take off your helmet, big boy." Haihane grinned and smacked her lips in desire.

"Make me." 6 smacked her head with his helmet, he wasn't beaten yet. 6 mustered all of the strength in his body to fight back and get up from the hold they had him in.

"Then I'll rip it off of you!" The pinkette said moved a free hand towards the helmet.

With a mighty heave and a feral cry of rage, 6 flung both of them away and rushed to stop Karasuba from reaching Matsu. He sped towards her and threw a swift punch for whatever he could hit. She sidestepped him and countered his charge with a kick in the center of his back. 6 caught himself and whipped around to exchange blows with Karasuba but it was a clash that was clearly in her favor. Without his blade or a weapon, the situation would only continue to get worse from that point. If he allowed any of the three disciplinary squad members to best him or get to Matsu then the fight would be over and he would have to surrender to keep her safe.

Karasuba stepped up the pace of her slashes and began to slowly overwhelm 6 with her thousand cuts from the long sword she used. At this rate 6 wouldn't last much longer, he would have to flee or find some way to put Karasuba down for the count. He needed a knock out blow, and he needed it fast. Karasuba could only smile, she was having the time of life beating the spartan to a pulp in battle. Fighting her ashikabi was becoming a habit, one that she found a delectable taste for to be honest. She was on the final stretch to conquering the spartan and dragging him to MBI with her. Matsu would be the bonus now rather than the objective, the same went for her colleagues who were currently chasing the red head.

Matsu fled as fast as her legs could carry her while the two hunters were bearing down on her. She really wished she'd exercised more, but then she never expected to be forced out into the open like this. There had to be something, anything she could use to get out of this by some miracle. Why had Miya let this happen to her? It didn't make sense at all. She prayed to whatever deity that was listening to save her, be it thanks to her hero or some measure of providence. Matsu glanced in 6's direction and spotted him deadlocked in an all-out battle with Karasuba. She could see the writing on the wall, without help 6 might not be able to win this time. Now it was her turn to save him, and thus she would save herself as a result. That same determined look appeared on her face as she tried to form a plan for victory in her mind. She scanned the battlefield with her eyes, and as if by that miracle she had been asking for, 6's pistol was laying on the ground to her right. If she could just get her hands on that gun, it would change the entire direction of the battle.

She sprinted hard to outrun her pursuers and dove for the weapon. She clasped the magnum in her hand and fired wildly at Benitsubasa and Haihane to try and drive them off. The two of them immediately dodged her wild gunshots which gave Matsu the opening she needed to make a run for 6. Only a few bullets were left in the gun so she had to make the next ones count or her plan could fall apart and she could kiss her freedom goodbye. Matsu tried to steady herself and took a quick breath, it had to be a perfect shot or she could miss Karasuba and hit a civilian or even 6.

Karasuba and 6 were currently grappling with each other, or rather 6 had clamped his palms on the blade and was trying to hold Karasuba back. A better shot wouldn't come, Matsu had to take her chance now. She squeezed her finger around the trigger and fired the pistol, the 12.7 slug exited the barrel and flew at Karasuba's leg. Less than a second later the round had gone straight through Karasuba's thigh and made her shriek with pain. That one second was all it took for 6 to get his hands on her and clamp her down in a sleeper hold.

Karasuba fought and clawed to get out of the spartan's grip before she would succumb to the lack of oxygen. 6 pressed down even harder on her the more she fought him off but just as she was about to go down, Benitsubasa and Haihane appeared and began to attack him again. The spartan jumped back and kicked Benitsubasa in the face with his size 24 hoof of a boot. He grabbed Haihane's arm mid slash and swung her into Benitsubasa like a baseball bat. Both girls landed on the floor with a thud and struggled to get up on their feet again.

6 stood over the two of them and shook his head. "Both of you should have just stayed away from me." He said coldly to the two of them.

"Don't you get it, asshole?! Didn't Karasuba tell you a fucking thing?!" Benitsubasa snapped at him.

"You're our destined one, 6. She's your sekirei now, and she was drawn to you just like we are." Haihane added coolly.

"I don't care. Now for the last time, just stay out of my way." 6 told them as he turned away to check on Matsu.

"I didn't come this far just to get stuck with that gay jerk Natsuo. I won't drop dead until I'm safe from him! you got that tin-head?!" Benitsubasa declared proudly and stood back up, wiping some of the blood from her lip.

"Me neither. If we get our wings, we'll do it together." Agreed with her comrade and rose up beside her.

"So you want me to give you what I gave Karasuba…" 6 trailed off.

"THAT'S A BIG FAT YES!" Both girls screeched at him angrily.

-END CHAPTER-


	9. Crazy in Love

Halo: Of Wolves and Wagtails

Episode 8: Crazy in Love

A/N: I apologize for the delay but I was strapped for ideas this time. I hope everyone likes this chapter, I did my best on it but I know it's probably not so good to put it lightly.

Posted on 2/18/2020

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[Destins: Thanks, and yeah the poor guy can't catch a break.]

[Slim A Lou Prime: Power Sword you say? Hmm why does that sound familiar? You don't mean He-Man's sword do you?]

[Evowizard25: Thank you, and yes it seems 6 is now committed to the inn or rather one of its tenants. I really hope you aren't disappointed by this chapter when it comes to Benitsubasa and Haihane.]

[VGBlackwing: I'm guessing sekirei still have babies the same way that humans do, no reason to assume otherwise. That kid would be a badass to put it lightly.]

[halsey11mc: Thank you, and I'll give you a hint: Great Scott!]

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-CITY SQUARE-

Benitsubasa and Haihane waited patiently for an answer from the spartan. The spartan in question, just stood in place for a brief moment to ponder their desire. A huff of impatience came from the pinkette, she tapped her foot and scrunched her face into a mean glare at her potential ashikabi. Haihane though was calm and silent as she waited for the answer, a look of boredom was the expression she wore on her pretty face.

"Well, say something tin man!" The pinked haired brawler barked at her crush.

"No." 6 said curtly. Both girls went wide eyed in a brief moment of shock at the word. The pinkette's shock wore off quickly and was replaced with a quiet tremble, her appearance would be akin to a tea pot about to blow off steam.

"NO?! OH, FUCK YOU!" Benitsubasa's already short temper erupted and she screeched at 6 like a wailing banshee, her blushing face was redder than ever with rage and arousal. "I did not get my ass kicked, and go through kicking your titanium ass, just to hear you say NO!" She ranted as she got in 6's personal space.

The spartan bent down slightly to look her in the eye. "I'll say it again, no." He told her.

"Just why the hell not, dipshit?!" Benitsubasa glared at him and gritted her teeth in rage.

The amount of insult being thrown his way were beginning to wear thin on the Spartan's patience. "What reason do I have to attach myself to an enemy? The answer is none whatsoever." 6 explained in a cold tone, his words pierced through the hearts of both girls like a frozen spear of ice.

"Now that is just bullshit! Haihane and I have gone to hell and back, all for you! I'd have killed anyone else that gave me this much trouble!" The pinkette clenched her fists and spouted a tirade of pent up rage at 6. Small teardrops began to form at the outer rims of the pinkette's eyelids as she spat fire at the man.

The blue sekirei inched closer and removed one of her gauntlets. She then summoned the nerve to put one of her soft hands directly onto the Spartan's cold, titanium chest plate. "We don't have to be enemies, 6. Just let us have this, please. Don't… don't reject us." Haihane begged.

"Both of you are in my way, move aside." 6 growled to the both of them.

"No." Haihane said in determined tone as she began to hug the spartan. "Please don't just call for us and then shut us out."

The spartan looked down at her, his visor glistened in the sunlight as the sun rose higher into the sky above. "I… I never called for you." The ice in his tone sounded as if it had chipped slightly. He stared into the girl's eyes for only the briefest moment and suddenly a flash of memory struck him with the force of a 90-millimeter round from a scorpion's main turret. Within those eyes he saw a howling, lonely emptiness, that same familiar void which he knew all too well.

Benitsubasa rushed to his side just as Haihane had done and she squeezed the spartan tenderly in her arms. "We've gone through hell to get this close to you… You're supposed to be our ashikabi, the one we're meant to hold and cherish forever, we can't…. no, we won't let you throw us away." She looked straight into 6's visor with a roaring desire, a chain of passion that had simply refused to break even under the harshest of strains.

For one of the few moments in his entire life, the spartan assassin was stunned in frozen silence. His legs had strangely grown heavy and his scarred hands trembled as he stared into the eyes of the two girls who had previously been trying to capture him.

This heavy feeling, it wasn't something 6 had ever experienced before as far as he could recall. Memories flashed through his mind as he tried to comprehend the new feeling that had brought his actions to a screeching halt. 'What is this?' He asked himself. This wasn't anything like him at all, and he certainly knew it at the core of his mind. He was trained to think and act, not to feel for anything but vengeance, his duty to the UNSC, and his brothers and sisters. So, what was this heavy feeling that had become such a weight on his shoulders that it began to grow painful?

But while he spent that short few seconds distracted to process the new emotions, Haihane snaked one of her arms into a pocket on her belt. She then whipped her arm out and slapped a small circular module onto 6's torso. A brief pulse came the device on contact with the suit, and the spartan woke from his moment of distraction to a frightening revelation. 6 grunted when felt his suit almost instantaneously lock into place. "You locked my armor!" He exclaimed in surprise at their underhanded move to disable him.

It was like one of his dreams, every time he'd had a dream that wasn't a quick blur or a horrible nightmare, he'd found himself feeling so heavy. He tried to move, to push the two of them away and get on with his next objective, but he found no such success in that attempt. The intangible force that held him down grew heavier on his body, and the tighter both of the girls hugged him, the more oddly comfortable he felt. In an act of desperation, he turned to his gut for an answer but even his trusted instinct was mostly quiet on what he should do. With another burst of thought, he changed the question that he asked of instincts and inquired instead if this feeling of warmth the two girls were giving him was right. A low whisper that he'd never heard from his instincts before told him that it was. It shouldn't feel right to him, it just shouldn't feel so warm in this spot.

While 6 stood frozen in the grasp of the two disciplinary squad girls, Matsu watched with a mix of emotions on her mind. The most prevalent of those emotions was fear, a fear that her valiant hero was about to become her enemy. She took her eyes away from the display of deceit and affection then looked at the high caliber pistol that rested in her hands. The superhuman warrior that had fought so hard to defend her was now in the arms of two of the most feared sekirei in recent times, and she now had a choice to make about that with the magnum pistol she carried.

Her mind was racing to find a myriad of solutions to the problem, and her heart was going a mile a minute within her chest. If she did not act to stop the two squaddies from conquering 6, she would be in their sights next. On top of that issue, she could lose her armored savior forever to the black hearted Karasuba when the discipline squad leader woke up from her unconscious stupor. The pretty redhead clutched her free hand ever so tightly to the area of her chest where her heart was positioned.

What could she do? She couldn't shoot them, she wasn't a heartless witch like Karasuba, and 6 might shield the two of them from the bullet. That would not only anger him, but it would shatter any trust they had grown between them. But if she ran away then that would be the end of it, the spartan would be lost to the grip of MBI forever. He would no longer be her mysterious savior, but rather a nearly unstoppable enemy that was capable of untold destruction. She couldn't let that happen; she couldn't let it end like this. Matsu took a deep breath to steady herself and rallied every ounce of courage in her body and soul.

"6!" Matsu shouted his name with all of the breath in her lungs at that second. But there was no response to her cry from the frozen spartan, at all. Undeterred by that lack of response, the redhead took in another breath of air."6, I know you can hear me! I'll find a way to snap you out of it!" She shouted loudly again to the spartan.

Benitsubasa had grown irritated at the shouting that came from Matsu and decided to retaliate. "Shut up, SHUT UP!" The pinkette roared at the redhead. Her cheeks were still the same fiery red from her ongoing reaction to 6. "This guy is going to be our ashikabi! Got it?! So, back off and runaway, or get squashed!" The furious red sekirei snorted like an angry bull, and she was ready to charge at the girl that had dared to try taking her ashikabi away when she was so close to her goal.

"I'm not going to let you take him!" Matsu shouted proudly with blushing red cheeks as she pointed the handgun at the both of them. She was going to have to fight them somehow in order to set 6 free from their grip. This was her next moment to shine, and she knew that it was up to her take the spartan back. Both of the squaddies had left her no choice other than to risk wounding them in order to help 6 out of this mess. She'd landed a shot the terrifying Karasuba of all people, and now she would have to do the same thing to Benitsubasa and Haihane. "Don't make me use this again! I'll set him free, no matter what it takes!"

"Ha! You got lucky and hit our leader's thigh!" Haihane spat at the redhead with a sly grin on her pretty face. In her lust for the man under the armor, the blue sekirei ran her ungloved finger along the stunned Spartan's chin. She mused to herself about just how perfect it would be to bring him home to the tower, to spend a night by his side with Benitsubasa in bliss. If What Karasuba had said was true, she just had to have to have him.

"Our man here was the one who knocked her out, and we'll do worse to you! So, get lost ya pervy wimp!" Benitsubasa threatened the determined redhead, with a furious scowl on her cute face to emphasize her point. Matsu was undeterred and continued to her slow advance on the two of them. Neither of those two would stop her, but she still had to figure out a plan, the gun was not going to be enough.

"Oh, now what should we do to our big strong man when we get him to the tower? What do you think Benitsubasa?" Haihane said a sultry voice as she stroked the Spartan's chin with her hand, she licked her lips and moaned while her privates salivated in the desire for hot action. She continued her gentle caressing of the man's neck and grinded her thighs against the titanium suit.

Benitsubasa blushed madly at her partner's lustful words. The bubblegum brawler bristled excitedly at the thought actually embracing the illusive man she and her partner had been chasing. "Haihane! Don't be a perv like her!" Said an embarrassed Benitsubasa while she grinded her own thighs together in a ditzy manner. The pinkette turned head away from Matsu as she tried to deflect the question, which allowed the redhead to inch closer to her goal while she cooked up a plan. The both of them arguing with each other was a certainly useful distraction to buy some time, she just had to think.

Haihane chuckled at her reaction and shot an amused look at the red sekirei. "Come on, don't tell me you're not licking your own chops for the man under the mask. He's huge in stature, so maybe he's huge in other ways too." The blue sekirei purred seductively.

Searing hot puffs of comedic steam practically poured out of the pinkette's ears. "Alright, I want him so bad! There I said it!" It was an embarrassing moment for the petite brawler, but she could not resist the urges of her biology.

Haihane began to cackle at her partner's actions and the two of them began to butt heads. Matsu clenched her hands tightly around the pistol, and shook with agitation at their words. Her infuriation reached its peak when a splash of inspiration struck the redhead. From what she knew of the spartan thanks to her information gathering, the man possessed a powerful energy shield. It stood within reason that it could be used to do what she had in mind for the two Sekirei that were in her way.

"You're not going to do anything to him!" Matsu defiantly shouted to the two of them.

"I said GET LOST! You don't have the guts to shoot me! I'll just pound you into the ground like the pathetic wimp you are!" Benitsubasa roared back at the redhead in seething fury and stamped one of her feet onto the concrete in rage. The impact from the force behind her stomp left several visible cracks in the concrete beneath her feet.

"You're right, I've got something ever better in mind for you two!" Matsu declared as she made a hard sprint towards 6. Every cell in her brain was screaming that her plan was going to be insane, and it was going to be painful, but she knew she had to do it. Benitsubasa threw a punch at her, but Matsu barely managed to dodge her opponent's fist and stretched her palm out to the Spartan's chest armor plates. Upon her touching her hand to the warm surface of the metal suit, Matsu's eyes began to glow and the armor's outer shield shined a bright electric blue.

A shower of electrical sparks erupted from the Spartan's position and into immediate the area surrounding 6. The redhead tried to focus on her objective rather than on the excruciating pain from the electrical shock she'd caused. Her opponents were thinking far less pleasant thoughts as the surge or energy coursed through their nervous systems and arcs wild electrical current danced off of their bodies. The civilians who were not wearing sunglasses, shielded their eyes from the bright strobe flashing of the vibrant blue electrical sparks. A brief few seconds passed before the surge became too much for their bodies to handle and forced the two disciplinary squad members away from the spartan, out of reach of their goal yet again. They rolled across the ground, their bodies smoking slightly from what had just transpired. Matsu breathed heavily and shakily removed her hand from the Spartan's torso and tried to block out the unpleasant sensations that she had inflicted upon herself.

6 began to move again and shook his head to try and recover from the disorienting shock. He put a hand to his helmet and blinked rapidly to get his bearings back. A moment later, he glanced down at the injured Matsu. Her red hair was frazzled and numerous small burns covered her body from head to toe. "Matsu, are you alright?" He asked as he leaned down to pick her up in his arms again.

"I just saved you, by electrocuting myself. I think I'll take a little rest." Matsu chuckled as she collapsed into the Spartan's arms. She smiled at him with a gleam reflecting off of her glasses and the sunlight shining off of her lovely red hair. 6 slowly picked her up and then turned to leave the area, despite the fact that heavily armed stood in the way of his escape. The police brought up their riot shields and stood their ground as the spartan stared them down. Suddenly a pebble struck the back of 6's helmet, and the spartan turned back to see the two disciplinary squad members struggling to get up from their daze. He watched them put in tremendous amounts of effort simply to stand up on their own feet.

In an odd way he had to respect that, the sheer determination to obtain a kiss from him in order to bond and complete their objective of capturing him alive. No matter how badly beaten down both of became in the process, they kept getting back up to face the challenge head on. 6 sighed to himself and chuckled slightly in admiration of the willpower of the two girls. He cradled Matsu in his arms like a sleeping bride while he approached Benitsubasa and Haihane. The pinkette glared into his visor as he approached her, a river of tears streamed from eyes as she pounded her fist against the ground in a tantrum.

6 maintained a calm pace until he stood in front of the pinkette and bent down towards her. Haihane marshalled what little strength she had left and clawed her way over to her partner's side. A minute later 6 stood over them with a profound a silence that permeated the space around him and the two beautiful enforcers. He set carefully set Matsu down behind him and then kneeled down in front of the two girls.

"You've both have guts. I'll give you that." 6 put his hands on Benitsubasa's head and delicately stroked her hair. Haihane shot him a spiteful look, and he immediately swapped his field of view to her. The spartan proceeded to give her the same attention he was giving to Benitsubasa, a soft pat on the head being her reward. "I can understand your determination, but I have to walk Matsu home where she belongs." There was a certain warmth to his simple words, a kindness of sorts that hadn't been there before.

"Don't…. don't leave us." Benitsubasa whispered with what little of her strength that remained.

"You're the one we're destined to be with, forever. They'll take that away from us if we fail." Haihane said with a look of despair on her face.

"So, you have said." 6 grunted stoically as the two of them tried to appeal to him in some meaningful way.

He softly cupped his hands around their chins, propping their heads higher with his mighty strength. From 6's point of view, the tears they had shed were glistening brighter than the most things he had seen. All of those tears were real, they were truly beautiful because of that sincerity. "We might speak again, the next time we meet. You've earned that much." The hearts of Benitsubasa and Haihane nearly stopped at the uttering of those words.

"You can't abandon us like this. There might not be a next time for us." Benitsubasa

"I'm not. I want Hiroto to know that I'm interested in his deal. You two are still a part of that offer of his, that should buy the both of you some time. If not, he'll regret it." 6 told the girls as he glanced between them, a hint of anger laced his words. The spartan then rose to his feet and scooped Matsu into his arms once again.

Letting out a sigh, 6 frowned in hardened resolve behind his helmet faceplate and began to walk away. Benitsubasa and Haihane attempting to crawl after him, the pinkette managing to grab a firm hold of his ankle. The spartan briefly stopped to pry her fingers away from his boot and went on his way towards the edge of the square. All of the heavily armed police and MBI Security troopers pointed their weapons at him, yet 6 continued to walk on undeterred by the show of hostility.

"Halt or I'll shoot!" A trooper prepared to fire his weapon.

"Wait, hold your fire! All of you stand down! It's a direct order from the CEO!" A higher ranked officer shouted to the jumpy trooper and all of the other armed personnel in the surrounding area. They began moving out of the way as 6 quietly moved through them, the looks on their faces spoke of all the confusion and contempt they held for a man they barely knew. With that incident over, the spartan began sprinting through the crowd towards his destination.

"6 what happened to you?! Who was messing with the armor?! Cause that really hurt, ya know! Also, why do you look like hammered shit?! Who's the red head you're holding?!" Misako shouted as she came back online to check on her partner. "Just what in the hell did I miss?! 6 tell me!"

"Everything." 6 told his partner.

-MEANWHILE AT SHIN TOWER-

In the office at the top of MBI's main tower, the mad genius himself was grinning ear to ear at what the spartan had just shown him. A sinister aura radiated from the twisted CEO as he stared at the monitor with a look of amusement. "How delightful." Minaka said as he leaned back into his seat for a moment, he replayed the footage of the battle while a report from the lab technicians scrolled across another nearby screen. Across the top of the screen with the report was a title with the designation: ARMOR LOCK. Right beside the title was the words success in bold green letters. "Oh, what a glorious day for my game! Finally, some truly entertaining drama in my contest of the gods!" He cackled to himself as he spun around in his computer chair like a maniac.

The mad genius stopped his spin and picked up a small circular device, a faint electrical glow radiated from the high-tech trinket while it sat in Minaka's hand. "So interesting how such a small thing can make a world of difference, ah the wonders of science." Minaka tossed the piece of technology into the air like a coin and caught it a short moment later, a gleam of light reflected off of the man's glasses. "I'll be waiting you then, Spartan. Eventually all the secrets that you hold will be unlocked, one way or another. The future will be forged from the will of the gods!" He said with an excited grin.

While the demented genius cackled to himself in the office, behind the door in the hallway stood a serious Takami. She clenched her fist at what she heard from inside the room, a fire of determination lit in her eyes. No matter what it took, she would undermine that psychopath's inhumane plan for the sekirei race. It was now time to concoct her own plan to stop Minaka's madness, and she knew just the right people to help her. With that in mind, she stormed off down the hallway towards the elevator to visit the research labs. "You're not going to get away with this Minaka. I swear that whatever you plan to do I'm going to stop you; I owe it to Takehito and Miya."

-LATER-

After a walk through the city and catching Misako up on recent events, 6 had returned to the front steps of Maison Izumo with Matsu fast asleep in his arms. He approached the home and was greeted by the appearance of a panicking Uzume and a snarling Kagari. Miya was right behind the two of them, an expression of worry was strewn across her pretty face.

"What happened?! Is she alright?!" Uzume asked frantically as she approached the spartan and unconscious sekirei.

"She took a bad electrical shock." 6 replied in a cam tone.

"How the hell did that happen?!" Kagari barked at the imposing super soldier, clearly undeterred by 6's appearance.

6 was silent for a moment, he carefully contemplated what to say in response the civilian's inquiry. He briefly glanced to Miya for a read on her disposition as well, but her facial expression spoke nothing other than concern. With no other option to use but the truth, 6 took a quick sigh before he spoke again. "She received it during her attempt to assist me against Benitsubasa and Haihane."

"Calm down, everyone. Let's get her inside." Miya commanded to the group, and they all complied by walking straight through the door of the inn. 6 tenderly set the unconscious Matsu down on a couch and Miya ran to grab her a blanket. While 6 kneeled beside the injured girl, Kagari shot him a particularly nasty stink eye. Though 6 took note of the irritated expression on the man's face, he decided it was best not to inquire until Miya returned. Miya came back several minutes later with blankets from Matsu's room and Uzume helped her tuck in the injured redhead.

"She needs proper medical attention, but this was the only place I could think of to bring her at the moment. And before anyone asks, I am not a medic." 6 told the three other people in the room.

"I can understand why you did, if she were to be admitted to the nearest hospital, she'd be easy pickings for MBI. Even with you there to protect her." Kagari said as he glanced at Matsu, the silver haired man then turned his gaze back to the landlady. "Miya why didn't you stop her?" He asked her with a distraught tone.

Miya crossed her arms and sighed in regret for her mistake. "I… had not expected this to happen." The landlady told him quietly.

"Are there any other hospitals nearby?" 6 asked the group. Miya shook her head while Kagari scratched his is in thought.

Uzume gritted her teeth and glanced back and forth between all of her associates. She knew that Matsu needed treatment, and there was only one place she knew of that could help. "There's one I can think of that MBI has no control over, it's not that far from here." She told the spartan.

6 noticed her apprehension but he knew it was best to focus on the task at hand and save that line of questioning for later. "Let's move out then, Matsu needs professional treatment ASAP."

"I'll go with you." Kagari said as he stood up.

"Knock yourself out." 6 replied to the silver haired fellow. The spartan then looked at Uzume and uncovered Matsu. "Lead the way Uzume." 6 ordered to the buxom brunette and she nodded fiercely as she stormed out of the house, with the spartan and Kagari trailing behind her. The silver haired man shot Miya one more look as he went out the door and shut it behind hind him. Miya put a hand to her head and grimaced. 'I suppose I overestimated his abilities, or maybe Karasuba has gotten stronger than I thought.'

-OUTSIDE: WITH THE GROUP-

"It's this way!" Uzume said as she ran ahead of her associates towards the hospital. But just as she and the others were about to go around a corner, a slender young man stepped out in front of them and stuck his hand up. Uzume skidded to a halt just in front of him, and the face she saw made her jaw drop. Directly in front of the busty brunette was a man with blonde bob cut hair and a handsome face, his body was quite lean and he sported a blue shirt and black jeans with a pair of running shoes.

6 and Kagari stopped short just behind Uzume and the blonde man raised an eyebrow at their presence. His eyes narrowed when his analytical gaze landed on the injured redhead. With his observation complete, he smirked and took on a confident aura. "From the look of your friend and the direction you're going, I take it you must be heading to Hiyamaki Hospital. She has some very serious burns, electrical most likely."

"Get out of the way." 6 growled to the man.

"Now, now, I come bearing fair tidings. I have an alternate option for you to treat your friend. I'm sure you don't want to owe a substantial debt to the man who owns Hiyamaki. It would be quite inconvenient for you." The stranger advised the group.

"And why should we trust you, a guy we just ran into on the street? We don't even know you, and we have no reason to trust you." Kagari narrowed his eyes at the suspicious man.

"Fair enough, introductions are in order. My name is Hanafusa Hajime, I'm a doctor at the university and-" The now named doctor said politely, but he was interrupted by the spartan.

"She needs urgent medical attention, and you're slowing us down with talk. Either assist us or leave." 6 growled at the man with a tone that spoke volumes of capacity for violence.

The doctor did not seem phased in the slightest by the super soldier's words, in fact he seemed quite at ease. "I'll make it simple; do you want to owe a debt to the owner of the hospital: Higa Izumi, or not? Either way you still avoid MBI, but I can guarantee swift emergency treatment for your friend. I'll personally see to her injuries right away." Hanafusa pitched his arrangement to the group.

"There's always a price." 6 said grimly.

"Quite logical of you, yes there is. The decision you make is entirely up to you." The good doctor replied calmly.

"Deal." 6 nodded.

"Follow me then, I've sourced a vehicle capable of taking ALL of us to the university. Your suit weighs approximately 1000 pounds from what I can see, luckily I had the foresight to compensate for such an issue." The doctor said as he walked across the street to a heavy duty ambulance that he'd acquired. He immediately opened the rear doors and gestured for them to step inside the emergency vehicle. "Please load my patient onto the bed."

"Just help her." 6 said impatiently as he set down the sleeping beauty.

"Of course, it's my responsibility since we made our agreement, and I am a doctor after all." Hanafusa replied as he began hooking up Matsu to the vehicle's medical equipment. The doctor then made a sharp rap on the window to the cab and the ambulance sounded its and sirens as it sped off towards the school.

-END CHAPTER-


	10. Steel For Humans

Halo: Of Wolves and Wagtails

Episode 9: ...Steel For Humans

Originally Posted on: 5/12/2020

A/N: I'm SOOO sorry!I had to rack my brain for months to figure how to do this right, PLEASE FORGIVE ME for the delays. I just had to try and make this perfect, and my mind refused to cooperate. My mind was a mess of ideas on how to proceed and what to do about this.

 **SPOILER READ AT YOUR PERIL:** I hope everyone is with the world building with some of the Easter Eggs that will happen in this chapter. If you read carefully and pay attention they should be obvious.

Also, I hope everyone picked up on the title of the chapter. Here's a hint, sometimes they call him ' _the white wolf'_ and he carries two blades...

Flame Count: 1

One more thing, I hope that everyone out there is staying safe and healthy throughout these troubled times. We're all in this mess for the long haul.

* * *

[DaggerXXX: Ah the first flame I've ever received that I can remember in recent memory. If you PM me then we can discuss how YOU think the story can improve. Tell me what you think he did that was not spartan of 6 to do. How were the fights boring? How was the pursuit boring? Why did you think these things? I have an open door policy and I'll hear you out if you decide to to speak with me directly. I'll take your criticism into consideration.]

[Guest 1: Yes, yes I do.]

[SPRTN544: Indeed! Chief Mendez never taught him that, but Sar'nt Major Johnson would probably be proud of him for his luck with the ladies.]

[Guest 2: He's still got the sword, he just decided not to use it against the Sekirei. They're doing against their will, so I figured 6 would show a small measure of restraint when combating them. It's the sort of thing that usually he'll only put to use when he wants to 'cut' loose.]

[Evowizard25: THANK YOU very much! I'm glad you appreciate my hard work on 6's development! I'm doing my absolute to make sure I potray every character as well as possible. Benitsubasa and Haihane will get their wish soon enough, believe it.]

[Slim A Lou Prime: OOHHH! Now I understand! I'm not too familiar with 40K, my only experience with it is 'Space Marine' and the intro cinematic for Dawn Of War 2. I'd love to have a Space Marine sequel, too bad the chance for it went down with old THQ.]

* * *

-TOKYO UNIVERSITY MEDICAL WING-

Within the confines of the average sized hospital room was the group of 4 people surrounding the bed of Matsu. A heart monitor beeped rhythmically while 6 stood silently across from Doctor Hanafusa as the odd physician looked over his handiwork with the unconscious red head. Something about the doctor rubbed 6 the wrong way, it wasn't easy for him to describe the specific quality that he found to be so off-putting about Hanafusa other than that there was something hiding beneath the surface. Though he could recall that throughout his time working for ONI he'd encountered individuals with a similar demeanor to the man assisting the injured beauty that laid sound asleep in the hospital bed. But the spartan supposed that it didn't matter for the moment, he could worry about trusting the doctor and dealing with his terms of their agreement later.

For now, the spartan had to relax and centered his thoughts on a different issue, the fact that now the world or at least a huge crowd of present-day civilians had seen him in combat. Now the damage to the future he'd just caused by being revealed to the public in such a way could spell disaster, and it was his own fault for allowing it to happen. He silently cursed at himself for his reprehensible actions in the field, he was supposed to be an elite professional and instead he'd telegraphed his existence for the entire city to see. Not to mention that he'd dragged Matsu into MBI's crosshairs, though it was evident that she had already been a target given the way that Karasuba had addressed the redhead. In 6's opinion, to say that his current situation is beyond frustrating was a serious understatement.

As the spartan stewed in his thoughts, his AI companion contemplated what to say to him in order to make him feel better. She was supposed to be his partner, and she'd left him hanging when he'd needed her the most. Feeling guilty about it was not going to help her at all, but acting on it wasn't going to be easy for her to do. In order to distract herself from her guilt, Misako pulsed the motion tracker and picked up movement from the other people in the room besides 6 and the good doctor. She already knew that it was Uzume pacing around the room with a worried expression for her friend. From what she knew of Kagari, the man hadn't moved from his spot near the room's window. Kagari swapped between glancing at Matsu with the poker face of a master card player and down at the city streets below.

Doctor Hanafusa took a breath and stopped hunching over the sleeping beauty, seemingly finished with checks to admire his handiwork in treating the… unusual patient. He loudly cleared his throat to get the attention of everyone else in the room around him and his patient. "If I may have your attention please, the patient is completely stable."

"So, she's going to be fine?" Uzume asked curiously.

"Correct, Uzume-san was it? The patient should make a full recovery in due time, but she will need plenty of bed rest to recover." Doctor Hanafusa

"That's a relief. You're a life saver, Hanafusa-san." Uzume sighed with a smile at the doctor's words.

"We'd like to get her out of here as soon as we can." Kagari approached the doctor, a stoic look plastered on his face.

"I'm afraid that's not possible at the moment, at least not until she's healed enough to leave." The doctor replied calmly.

"And when will that be?" Kagari crossed his arms as he stared down the physician, but Hanafusa remained calm as ever in the face of adversity.

"It depends on her, but at the very least it will take several days. When she is able to be moved then by all means she can leave, of course that is up to her since I cannot force her to stay. I could force her to leave if she is completely healthy of course." He replied to Kagari in a straight forward manner, adding the hint of a threat to his tone.

"You wouldn't dare." Kagari narrowed his eyes at the doctor.

"The agreement was that I would treat her, and I have done just that. But you may relax. After all, what kind of doctor would I be if I threw my patient out for a trivial reason?" Doctor Hanafusa told him with a collected grin on his face. "Now I would like to ask that the both you and Uzume-san leave the room while I discuss 6-san's end of the arrangement we made." The doctor gestured to the door.

"We'll be back in 5 minutes." Kagari said as he moved towards the door, he turned his head to Uzume as he turned the handle. "Come on Uzume-chan."

"Are you sure that's a good idea Kagari-san?" Uzume cocked an eyebrow.

"They need some space, and I need some air. We won't be far if something happens." Kagari replied calmly to her friend's question, He then sighed and smiled a bit.

"If you say so." Uzume shrugged and then turned her gaze over to the spartan as she followed Kagari into the hall. "Keep her safe 6-kun!" She said with a smile as the door shut behind her.

With both Kagari and Uzume gone, A brief moment of silence settled over the room while 6 stared into the eyes of the doctor. The serious auras of both men made the air itself within the room feel as if it weighed 10 tons. A chuckle from the doctor caught 6's attention, Hanafusa crossed his arms and smirked confidently at the super soldier. 6 rolled his shoulders to relax himself slightly as if to prepare himself for combat, though this time it would be a conflict 6 had only minor experience in, a war of words.

"Now that the others have given us a moment of peace, let's discuss your end of our agreement." Doctor Hanafusa told the spartan in a cordial manner.

"What do you want?" 6 asked bluntly, not wanting to mince words with the latest person to whom he owed a debt.

"You prefer to go straight to business; I can appreciate that quality. There are several things that need to be dealt with in this city, your skills seem sufficient for what is required. You will be well compensated of course for your efforts. Think of Matsu-san's treatment as an advance payment of sorts in exchange for your skills." Doctor Hanafusa answered.

"Just get to the point." 6 unholstered his pistol and casually checked how many rounds remained in the magazine. He grasped weapon firmly in his hand and focused his eyes on it for a brief moment.

"Have you heard of a terrorist group known as the White Masks?" Hanafusa asked the super soldier, capitalizing on the man's demonstrated capacity for violence. 6 shifted his gaze slightly, his full attention focused back on doctor's face.

"No, but I'm guessing you want a lot of them dead." 6's stoic tone changed slightly, a hint of bloodlust in his words.

"Perfect." The doctor smirked, confident in his judgement of the lethal man of steel.

Behind the silver visor, 6 narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Hold on, I haven't agreed to deal with anything yet. I need specific parameters for the mission, there's something more to this than just eliminating some criminals."

"An astute observation, the terrorists are supposedly in possession of a deadly Bio-Weapon and are intent on putting it to use here in the city. Normally this would be handled strictly by the Japanese government and the local BSAA office, but you can deal with this problem in a more... efficient manner. A scalpel rather than a hammer if you wish to consider it that way." Hanafusa nodded coolly in response to the Spartan's inquiry.

"I take it my primary objectives are to secure and destroy the bioweapon, then eliminate the entire terrorist cell, correct?" 6 surmised.

"Precisely, proper authorities are aware and RAINBOW will strike the location, but they are moving too slowly due to interference from certain parties. That being said, it needs to be done before either the terrorists can escape or the authorities clash with them." The good doctor clapped his hands together and leaned his back against the wall directly beside the head board of Matsu's hospital bed.

"If this is such a serious problem, why hasn't MBI dealt with them? They're the ruling force in this city, that's what I can tell from everything I've seen of this place so far." 6 stood up straight with his arms crossed at the questions this notion raised.

"How do you think the government caught wind of this useful information?" The doctor retorted.

6 rolled his eyes and sighed in annoyance. "Of course, that's just typical for what goes on in this city." He extended a hand to the doctor for anything he could provide to assist in the task. "I'll hanlde this quickly."

On que, the government agent/physician handed 6 an envelope that presumably contained the details of the mission inside. "Hai, that would be the best course of action. Your friend will be safe here in my care while you are out taking care of business, you have my word as a physician." The doctor put a hand over his chest and gave a slight bow of his head.

6 nodded and turned to walk out of the room. "This won't take long."

"I'll be waiting, I trust you'll keep this conversation confidential." The doctor said as the spartan was about to step through the door into the hallway.

"What conversation?" 6 replied coolly and shut the door behind him. With that conversation over, the spartan engaged his active camo module and began to quietly stomp through the halls of the medical wing. It was quite fortunate that he'd been trained to be stealthy even in his Mjolnir armor, he imagined that somewhere in this time period the world governments were already experimenting with active camouflage technology. Perhaps there was an even better system than the module currently attached to his suit. But before he could muse further on that idea, his thoughts were then interrupted by his AI companion.

"Well that was mentally stimulating. Why does it seem like he'd fit right in with ONI?" Misako snidely commented about the doctor.

"Hmph, now isn't the time Misako." 6 grumbled to the construct.

"Oh, right." Misako slouched as the realization dawned on her. "You're still miffed at me for not being around yesterday."

"What a brilliant observation from the genius computer program." 6 grumbled to the AI construct, not in the mood for any tricks.

"And to think, enlisted personnel like to think of Spartans like you as the lunkhead machines, but ya still need time to process things like regular people do." Misako retorted, a hint of venom in her smooth voice.

"There are VERY FEW Spartans like me." 6 spat at the program, seemingly annoyed by the AI's analysis.

"Oh, you know what I meant, caveman." She rolled her digital eyes at him.

"Don't patronize me." 6 snorted.

While the two of them bantered to each other 6 noticed the readout for the active camouflage unit's power was running low. Keeping that in mind, the spartan took cover in a nearby broom closet within the halls. He watched his motion tracker as civilians passed by the door, just minding their own business on what seemed to be another routine day in the university. They all had no idea of what was going to happen if 6 was unsuccessful in dealing with the terrorists that had taken up residence within the far-east metropolis.

When the meter had finally recharged, 6 exited the broom closet and walked onward for several short minutes until he came to a small waiting area. That sported two vending machines and two TVs, as well as a coffee table and simple chairs. Standing over by the two machines were none other than Kagari and Uzume, both of them were completely engrossed in a conversation that 6had in interest in. Having sensed a chance for some humor, along with a suggestion from Misako, 6 silently approached the unsuspecting Uzume from behind. A brief shimmer of light was all Kagari saw before the 6.9-foot-tall giant materialized behind her friend. 6 then lightly tapped the buxom brunette's shoulders.

"BOO"

"Uwwaaah!" Uzume jumped up like a rocket, straight into Kagari's arms. 6 lightly chuckled from his bit of crude humor as he faced the two of them. "That was mean, 6-kun!" Uzume pouted with faux tears as Kagari un-enthusiastically held the brunette, an unamused look adorned his handsome face.

"Mean, yet effective." He smugly retorted to her pouting words.

Kagari unceremoniously dropped Uzume to the tile floor and crossed his arms. "Ow! What the heck, Kagari-san?!" Uzume hissed at the silver haired man. But her indignant words fell on unapologetic ears as Kagari raised an eyebrow at 6.

"So, what did you two talk about?" Kagari asked the spartan in his usual cool fashion.

6 decided to ignore the question, and instead brought up what he needed to discuss. "I need you two to look after Matsu, there's something important that I have to take care of." He asked them stoically.

"Hold on a minute! You're just going to abandon her?" Kagari furrowed his brow at 6, and the spartan shook his head in response. "IF, no… WHEN Karasuba comes back for Matsu, and you're NOT here to stop her-" The silver haired fellow began to scold the soldier for what could happen.

"I'll be back long before that can happen." 6 grunted stoically.

"Wait, what?!" Uzume did a spit take surprise at the mention of the vicious psychopath that had fought 6 to a stalemate. She immediately dusted herself and sprang to her feet. "I mean, Kagari has a point, 6."

"Just keep an eye on Matsu until I get back." The spartan pointed a finger at his fellow tenants as he barked his command to them.

"What the hell did you agree to, 6?" Kagari frowned in subtle anger.

"You'll know when it happens." 6 told him bluntly. The spartan then began to walk away from the two of women, leaving Kagari with an uncharacteristic scowl on his face. The day was bout to get even longer for the tired spartan, and the mess he'd stepped in was going to become much more difficult. Time and experience dealing with morally grey situations were a saving grace for him, the look under his visor was one of practice and hardened focus. Seconds later he vanished into thin air with his camo unit, proceeding quietly out into the city. Tonight, the city would know a level of violence it had never seen before in its long history, the kind that only a spartan could be capable of.

* * *

-2 HOURS LATER-

The evening sun sat just above the horizon and dusk was only a short time away. Rush Hour traffic had backed up in the local streets like any other day in the city of Tokyo. It was the perfect cover for a shadowy organization hidden just behind the curtain of society, a group that defined the term unknown quantity. On the roof of the building guards were scanning the streets and rooftops for any sign of approaching law enforcement or any prying eyes. So far things were quiet for their evening, no pesky officers or soldiers to ruin whatever their cell leader was planning or so they thought.

A single unsuspecting guard approached the edge of the roof and stopped for a smoke break. He lifted his mask ever so slightly and took a puff of a cigarette, what he didn't see was a brief shimmer below his position. Within an instant his throat had been gripped in a stranglehold by an invisible force his eyes turned bloodshot as he flapped his limbs around for air.

Death's merciful release came when his head was twisted 180 degrees with a quick pop from his spinal cord. Now lifeless, the guard's limbs hung limply and the corpse plopped onto the concrete like a sack of meat. The other guards took a step back in surprise at the sudden nature of their ally's death and instinctively raised their weapons to shoot at whatever they were trapped on the roof with.

Just as one of them was about to pull the trigger and alert his fellow White Masks he felt his chest cave in. He looked down with his last breath to see the rear half of a gun metal black limb sticking out of his torso where heart was. A splash of blood erupted from the dead man's mouth, which covered the now revealed helmet of the spartan. The hulking metal figure showed little reaction to the ichor splattered across its front side.

Once again, a dead corpse was dropped lifelessly to the ground, but this time the sole surviving rooftop guard had pulled the trigger of his weapon. The first few bullets just seemed to spark and ping off of the blue shield that covered the black armored figure which had killed his associates.

He screamed helplessly as the metal giant closed in and crushed his skull like dirt cold with its bare hand. Off in the distance, loud sirens from approaching first responders began to blare while a headless corpse fell on its back. The killer had already vanished into thin air by the time any noise came from the hunk of dead meat that hit the floor. A solid smack came from the direction of the rooftop entrance to the stairwell, the door itself had been bashed inward by an unseen force that had left behind a large boot print on the crumpled metal. This inhuman presence left a wisp of wind in its wake as it moved down the stairs and into the shadows of the building's interior.

Within the darkness of the stronghold, masked criminals roamed the halls of the third floor in search of an intruder. Lights from their rifles brightened the dimly lit paths before them, but with such small flashlights not every corner could be seen clearly. These men knew their stronghold well for what little time they'd spent in it, obeying the orders of their leaders to cause chaos. Each hallway was a maze of doors and crossed paths that stretch on for a fair distance. Some of the guards had wondered why the lights were out, though engineers had said the power was reduced but not cut entirely, some believed it to be a brown out rather than law enforcement cutting the power.

Quiet footsteps from the terrorists echoed within the corridors of the old office building while they hunted for whatever had caused the gunshots and silenced the team on the rooftop. One unlucky group of 5 men in particular was headed in the direction of the stairwell to check on the unresponsive rooftop lookouts. Florescent bulbs flickered weakly above them as they proceeded slowly to their objective, which forced the men to check every corner while they pushed forward. To their surprise and shock, the wooden door had been punched through and its handle was embedded into a wall beside them. This unnerved the men somewhat, one of them was slightly more afraid than the others.

From the back of the group a single man began to back away slowly from his team and into the flickering darkness of the hall behind him. The terrorist froze when he felt his back press up against a solid object, he held his breath and slowly tilted his head back to view what loomed over him. For less than a second, he'd seen his reflection in a silver plate that vanished with the next flicker of light. With his next breath the terrorist let out a short scream before his windpipe was ripped out by the unseen monster.

Several yards away the rest of the team heard the scream of terror and turned their rifles to the direction of the blood curdling sound. Their leader signaled for them to approach where their comrade's cry had come from, and when they reached the spot they froze. A pool of blood was splattered all over the floor around the deceased man's neck. One of them kneeled down to examine the dead body and took note of the feral manner in which the entire front side of the neck had been torn off like a beast had ripped it away for meat. But as he examined the body further for clues on what happened, he noticed something wedged under his dead ally's backside.

With a heave of effort, he turned the body over to see what the corpse was hiding and once it was revealed his blood ran cold in fear.

"GRENAAADE!" He screamed in fear, desperate to warn his allies of imminent doom, but the effort was in vain. A few short seconds later the explosive detonated with a loud BANG, which resulted in a small blast that lit up the area in a bright yellow flash. Bit of deadly shrapnel tore through the bodies of the men that had been standing around the explosion. Two of the guards had been thrown a foot or two away by the concussive force of the grenade trap, but two men that had been closest to the corpse were not so lucky. The top half of the examiner's head had been blown clean off by the explosion, what remained of it dripped with blood and bits of skull. What little remained of the other man's face was scorched and bloody, it gave off the appearance that it had been shredded like cheese.

One of the two survivors groaned and cried in agony while crimson red ichor spilled profusely from the wounds on both of them. Ringing filled the ears of the least injured survivor; his eyes were bloodshot and his head thumped in pain from the shock. He wheezed as he gazed down at the bloody holes on his front body armor, he shakily stuck a finger into one of them and gazed at the red liquid that coated his fingers.

While he faded in and out of consciousness, he could swear he heard the sound of boots clacking on the damaged linoleum. Was it an ally arriving to help him? His wonder did not last long as the boots stopped in front of him. His body mustered what little effort it had left and he looked up to the imposing figure that stood in front of him.

The stranger pulled a large pistol from their hip and pointed the silver weapon at the other survivor that was crawling away for their life. "I- I don't want to… die." Just as the dying man was about take his next pain fueled crawl forward, a bullet from the high caliber pistol blew a hole through his skull into the linoleum. Unrelenting fear gripped the guard that leaned against the wall as he watched this merciless hunter exterminate his entire heavily armed squad. In his throat a wet, choking sensation built up until he could hold it no longer and spat out a glob of blood. But the hunter did not care, and raised one of its boots into the air just in front of his face. The last thing he never saw was the metal boot ramming his skull into the wall, his face had caved in with the difficulty of a fragile eggshell.

-SEVERAL MINUTES LATER-

Down the hall a horde of lights appeared, the source was a group of reinforcements that had heard the commotion. "Over there!" Shouted the man at the front of the large group of men that responded to the explosion. They skidded to a halt when they arrived at the point of destruction, their flashlights bathed the area with white light. "Something tore these poor bastards apart!"

"On the wall! L-look at that!" Said a white mask guard with a shotgun in his hands. He took his hand off of the foregrip and pointed a message that had been written with the blood of the fresh corpses. A wave of unease washed over the men as they read the declaration that sat plainly in front of them.

'狩りが始まる'

"Kari ga hajimaru? A white mask with a 552 commando said with an incredulous tone. "What is this, a sick joke?"

"…The Hunt Begins." Behind his mask, the team leader's eye twitched. "You think THAT is a joke?! You moron! Whatever slaughtered our men wrote this message!" The higher ranked white mask scolded his subordinate. "EVERYONE SPREAD OUT! SHOOT ANYTHING THAT MOVES!" He barked furiously at the rest of the group of lower ranked terrorists.

Behind them a crimson-red light glows menacingly, the light of a Covenant executioner's energy sword.

"CONTA-GAAAAAH!" The sword's twin blades pierced the man's torso with a searing heat like that of hell itself. The group Panicked and fired their weapons at the source of light, but the blood red glow dissipated as the figure wielding the blade vanished. Just as the body hit the floor the killer had disappeared without a trace of their presence.

"What the FUCK was that?!" Shouted one of the men.

"Who cares?! JUST SHOOT!" He trained his flashlight over the dead body and shot at a piece of dry wall the fell to the ground.

"At what?!" Said another terrorist who began shooting wildly into the hallway ahead of him.

"EVERYTHING!" The group leader replied, lighting up the hallway to his right. All the men began shooting at nothing in their hopes to kill the intruder had begun to pick them off one by one. The red light flashed again and a spout of blood followed the beheading of another terrorist. In seconds the invisible hunter began chopping apart the panicked group of white masks without any hesitation or remorse to its actions. Limbs and blood littered the area while the guns of their owners popped, rattled, and banged in a desperate defense. Cries for mercy went unheeded as the hunter swept through the hallways for more victims to cut down.

The whole building had been alerted by the bloodbath and swarms of White Masks flooded the hallways of each floor. But all their efforts to defend themselves accomplished was to pour meat into the grinder for this gifted killer. Entire magazines of ammunition either hit thin air or bounced off the energy shield of the inhuman beast that carved the masks to pieces. At the far end of the third floor hallway a lone White Mask fired his light machine gun turret at the suit of black armor, each burst lit the hall with a bright orange flash of light. With a morbid sense of grace, the hunter avoided the bursts of gunfire through the use of agility that no normal human combatant should possess. Brass rained onto the floor and the barrel began to glow red hot after several seconds of continuous fire until a loud hiss and clicked signaled the man's doom. His turret need to cool AND be reloaded… and a large grenade had landed at his feet. The White Mask's eye twitched right before the explosive detonated and blew him to steaming bits of meat.

On the central floor of the building, guards were fortifying their positions for a full scale war against the demon that had seen fit to plague them before they could enact the next phase of their secret operation. All they had expected to face was heavily armed police units, none of them had ever thought one 'intruder' could cause so much carnage so quickly. In the pits of their stomachs, some of the terrorists knew that despite whatever mysterious goal they were striving for, their lives would end on this day. The security was at its heaviest in the area where the virus sample was being stored, a fortress within a fortress. All of it was going to be dismantled violently by the hunter, and none of them would be able to stop it.

Full teams of White Masks had trained their guns on the stairwell doors and elevators to prepare for the intruder. Sweat ran down their brows as they waited for the demon to rear its head into their lines of fire. A heavy silence filled the air of the building for several long minutes, most of the terrorists barely said a word while they scanned the halls for any sign of something out of the ordinary. Outside the command room beside the secure chamber for the virus, a single swatted at a fly that had decided to bug him. After a moment or two of slapping, he smacked a hand to side of his face, which killed the annoying insect. He had no idea what was about to happen within the next few seconds of his wasted life.

In the blink of an eye, the hall ignited in a huge explosion that collapsed an upper section of the hallway. Rubble from the upper floor buried the men who hadn't died from the blast, their bodies were mangled and crushed by the chunks of concrete and twisted steel. A cloud of dust blanketed the area in front of the blasted open command room as the White Mask who survived began to pick themselves up. Their leader shook her head and blinked rapidly to deal with the disorientation of the blast. She squinted into the cloud and coughed horrendously from the amount of smoke and powder in the air. Blurry outlines of a large figure appeared in the cloud and she instinctively reached for the pistol on the desk beside her. But in the span of the time it took for her to wrap her hand around the grip, a large hand had already closed around her throat and two glowing red blades had been revealed for her to see.

"What are you?" She rasped at the silver faceplate of the armored hunter that clutched her life in the palm of its hand. "You're not human…" Something snapped with the woman's mind as she stared into the abyss of the hardened glass. "WHAT KIND OF MONSTER ARE YOU?! WHAT KIND OF BLADE IS THAT?!" The female White Mask leader screamed in fear.

"A blade for monsters." That was the quiet reply to her question.

-END CHAPTER-


End file.
